


Heartless

by Nightfoot



Category: Tales of Vesperia
Genre: Angst, Drama, Friendship, Gen, lots of suffering
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-28
Updated: 2014-01-28
Packaged: 2018-01-10 09:27:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 45,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1158004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nightfoot/pseuds/Nightfoot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Flynn was a good knight. The problem was that he was too much of a goody-two-shoes to be useful to Alexei. But, if he could be controlled... and after all, Alexei needed a replacement for Schwann.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Choices

To say that Flynn was angry with himself would technically be an accurate statement, but it was along the same lines as saying that the Sands of Kogorh could sometimes be uncomfortably warm. Nobody held Flynn to higher standards than he held himself, and so nobody could be more furious with his failure to notice Alexei's deception than himself.

He stood on the prow of the ship, staring out at the horizon. His talk with Yuri a few hours ago was still fresh in his mind.  _"He was there working alongside you this whole time, Flynn!"_  Yuri had said.  _"How could you possibly not know?"_ That question had been ringing around his head ever since they separated. How could he possibly not have known? How could he have been such a fool? He was so mad at himself for blindly following Alexei's orders, and he had no idea how he could ever make up for that.

Alexei hadn't always been like this, he told himself. When he started following him, Alexei really had been good, noble and worth his allegiance. Over time, he'd been corrupted from within, leaving only a thin shell of his former self for the world to see. Flynn had been so enraptured with that ideal commandant he hadn't even noticed that it was a façade. What perhaps disturbed him the most was that fact that Alexei truly  _had_ been noble once. He'd had such great aspirations to save the empire, just like Flynn did now. If corruption into an evil, power-hungry monster could happen to Alexei, who's to say it couldn't happen to Flynn himself?

"Sir?"

Flynn looked over at the familiar voice and then forced a casual smile onto his face. "Good afternoon, Sodia. Can I help you?"

"Sir, you've been standing here since we left Yormgen and haven't given any orders since telling the captain to set sail for Zaphias. The men are getting a little worried."

She didn't say it, but Flynn could tell from her expression that she was getting a little worried, too. "I'm sorry. I have a lot on my mind, but I didn't mean to worry anyone. Tell the troops that our prime objective is to find Master Ioder and secure the capital. I don't know where Alexei plans on going next, but we cannot allow him to take control of the capital. Protecting Zaphias is our number one priority."

Sodia nodded. "Very good, sir." She hesitated, not walking away just yet. Sometimes Flynn loved the fact that after working side by side for so long she could so readily predict his thoughts and orders, but sometimes it was aggravating. She could clearly tell there was something weighing on his mind, and didn't want to leave him when he was still so clearly upset. "Is there anything else, sir?"

Flynn sighed. "Sodia… I want you to watch my back."

Sodia frowned quizzically. "Sir?"

"I trust you to support me, but I also want you to keep an eye on me."

"Of course, sir," Sodia said. "I will always stand by your side."

"That isn't what I mean," Flynn said. "I don't want you by my side, I want you watching my back, so that you can stab me in it should I ever fall to corruption the way that Alexei did."

Sodia's eyes widened in shock. "Sir, that would never-"

"I'm sure Alexei never expected to turn to megalomania either. You are a good knight, Sodia. I trust you more than anyone else in the knights. This is an order: if I should ever falter from the path of justice, I want you to stop me." This was why he needed Sodia. He could trust Yuri with nearly anything, and Yuri would always be his truest and dearest friend, but the fact was that Yuri's method of justice gave way to a slippery slope that Flynn was too afraid to get near. If Flynn were to start slipping down that slope himself, he needed someone as straight and narrow as Sodia to pull him back up, not someone like Yuri who was already carefully navigating his way around it.

Sodia pulled herself upright and saluted. "Sir! I have every confidence that this eventuality will never happen, but if it does, you can count on me. I am honoured that you would entrust this to me."

"I also hope it will never come to that, but I will rest better knowing I have someone to stop me." Sometimes, he just really appreciated Sodia. After Yuri left the knights, he'd been lonelier than he had ever been in his entire life. Flynn wasn't very good at making friends, a fact he blamed on having met Yuri when they were little and then sticking together so closely that he'd never felt the need to make any other close friends. When Yuri had gone, he suddenly realized that he didn't actually know how to make friends. Having a reputation in the brigade for being a goody-two-shoes overachiever didn't help, either. His comrades trusted him unquestioningly on the battlefield, and everyone was friendly enough, but nobody ever invited him to the bar afterward and without Yuri to drag him along, he was too shy to go by himself.

When Sodia had joined, and she was just as driven and just as much a stickler for the rules, they got along instantly. She was his confidante when Yuri couldn't be there. At first he had feared that their relationship would fall apart when he got promoted and became her commanding officer, but he'd been stupid to worry. Sodia supported him every step of the way and had always been his most loyal and trustworthy subordinate.

Running footsteps approached, and Flynn turned around to see one of his men hurrying toward him. "Sir!" he said, pulling up short and giving a hasty salute.

Flynn pushed aside his personal troubles to snap into position as confidant captain. He couldn't let his men see their captain waver. "What's the situation, Corporal?"

"The Heracles has been spotted heading toward Baction, Captain," the corporal said.

"The Heracles? I thought that was still off the coast of Tolbyccia," he said, more to himself than the corporal.

 _Dammit_ , Flynn thought. The Heracles was Alexei's greatest weapon, and he had to go bringing it to the same place Yuri had just run off to. He probably had a small army of his Royal Guard on board as well, ready to fight off intruders at Baction. What had he sent Yuri into? Maybe he should have gone after Lady Estellise himself. Furthermore, why would Alexei need Heracles just to walk into a shrine? That behemoth had the power to take out an entire city… He thought back to what he'd said earlier about ensuring Alexei didn't get his hands on the capital and clenched his fists. Threatening to shoot the castle with Heracles if they didn't hand him the keys to the city would work quite well.

"What should we do, sir?" the corporal asked.

Flynn took a deep breath, gathering his thoughts. "It is imperative that Yuri's rescue mission at Baction succeed." He turned to Sodia and said, "Sodia, I need you to lead a platoon to Baction and help Yuri. Tell Lieutenant Briggs that when we reach Illyccia, he needs to lead our ships to patrol the sea around Zaphias. Under no circumstances can the Heracles be allowed to take aim at the capital."

"Yes, sir!" Sodia said. "What about yourself?"

"I will disembark and proceed to Master Ioder by myself. I trust my brigade to deal with the Heracles, but someone has to ensure the safety of his highness."

"Yes, sir," Sodia said again. "How do you propose we stop Heracles from aiming at the capital?"

Flynn had already started to walk away to find his lieutenants and relay his orders. He looked back and said, "I don't know. You'll figure something out. Ram it if you have to."

* * *

Flynn's horse stirred up a dust storm in its wake in his rush to reach the capital. There were members of Alexei's Royal Guard stationed all over the empire, even in the capital. What if kidnapping Estelle was just the first step in staging a coup? Even now his knights could be attacking the Council to take the castle in the name of Alexei. He had to reach Zaphias and ensure Ioder's safety.

Luckily, he could already see the glow of Zaphias' barrier in the distance. He kicked his horse, urging it to gallop faster. He felt bad for pushing it so hard, but the fate of the empire might rest in his reaching Zaphias in time. They'd unloaded the animal from the ship when they made port on the coast, and Flynn had ridden at a steady pace all the way inland. He only sped up now, when the end was in sight.

Flynn galloped across the plain toward the main gates of the capital. He didn't see any smoke or hear any commotion, so he let himself hope that nothing had happened yet. With any luck, the Royal Guard were biding their time until Alexei arrived, and he was probably still at Baction. He was almost at the gates now, and spotted movement as the guards jumped to their feet to deal with the man speeding toward the city. Flynn pulled back on the reins to slow his mount down a bit. There weren't usually guards on duty at the city entrances. Had they heard about Alexei's treason already?

Flynn got closer, and got a better look at their uniforms. His grip on the reins tightened when he saw that those knights wore blood-red – Alexei's colour. He had just started thinking of what he should do when he felt rather than heard a thud, and his horse jolted and let out a pained whinny. A second crossbow bolt rushed forward and sunk into the creature's shoulder, blood seeping out and staining its fluffy white fur.

Flynn clutched the reins as the creature whinnied and reared into the air, front legs kicking madly. Flynn clung on for dear life, the beast's muscles spasming as more crossbow bolts sunk into it. He needed to get off and get his sword so he could fight off Alexei's men, but for now all he could do was dig his fingers into the fur and hold on tight. The horse came back down on all fours and then bucked its rear legs, thrashing about to try to get the bolts out of its flesh.

His fingers slipped and with one violent thrash the creature flung Flynn from his saddle. He landed on the dirt with a heavy clank of armour, the breath knocked out of him. He couldn't move for a few seconds as he gasped for breath. After two more bolts hit his horse, the animal gave one final whinny and collapsed, toppling over right on top of Flynn.

Flynn grunted as the weight landed on him, pinning his legs to the ground. He had gotten his breath back, and tried in vain to push the dying creature off of him. Clanking footsteps told him that Alexei's knights were running his way. Flynn swore and then dug his fingers into the horse's side, gritting his teeth and straining his muscles to try to move it. He was mostly uninjured from the fall, but he couldn't fight if he couldn't get this damn thing off his waist!

He managed to move it a centimeter and the horse whimpered in pain. "I'm sorry," Flynn grunted, trying to move it further. He did feel bad for the animal, but he didn't have time to focus on that right now. The knights were almost upon him. He was certain now that they'd been expecting him to come for Ioder and prepared an ambush.

He glanced over at the knights. There was no time to get this animal off of him. He held up its weight with one hand just long enough to pry his sword loose. He got his sword out just in time, and swiped it at the first knight's legs. The knight jumped back, and Flynn only succeeded at making a loud  _clang_  as his sword struck greaves.

There were five knights. Flynn knew his chances weren't good. If he was on his feet he could probably take them, but all he could do from the ground was swing his sword around violently and hold them off. Perhaps someone from the city would hear the commotion and come to his aid.

A few of the knights now had blood running down their legs from cuts on their thighs, which gave Flynn some satisfaction. He'd held them at bay for about three minutes, which was honestly better than he'd been expecting. None of them were reaching for their crossbows, which Flynn took as a good sign. With him thrashing around like this it would be hard to ensure a non-lethal hit, so Alexei probably wanted him alive.

His luck ran out. One of the knights got too close, and before Flynn could knock him away the knight met Flynn's sword with his own. He drove Flynn's arm back and then stamped down on his wrist, grinding it into the dirt. As the knight increased pressure on his wrist, he was forced to release his sword and Flynn gritted his teeth in frustration. Two more swords appeared over his face, and Flynn let his head fall back into the dirt, accepting defeat.

Two knights grabbed his arms while three others lifted the now-dead horse off Flynn's legs. They pulled him out and to his feet, and then quickly brought his hands behind his back and handcuffed him.

"Captain Flynn Scifo, you are under arrest by order of the commandant."

Flynn took a deep breath to contain his anger. "What crime am I supposed to have committed?"

"Treason," the knight said.

"I have only ever been loyal to this empire. Your commandant is the traitor." The knights ignored him, leading him back toward the gates where their own horses were waiting. "Why are you still loyal to him?" Flynn asked. "Can't you see that his actions will lead to ruin?"

One of the knights hit him. "Silence! Do not speak ill of the commandant." He didn't hit hard enough to be painful, but it wasn't gentle enough for Flynn to bother trying to keep talking, either. Flynn sighed and glanced up at the spires of the castle, wondering how long it would be now before he could reach Master Ioder.

* * *

Flynn wasn't sure how long he sat in the jail cell. Probably no more than an hour, but he couldn't be sure. They were at a knight outpost just south of Zaphias, but no one was telling him anything. For all he knew, Alexei planned on keeping him locked in here until after all his plans had come to fruition.

He shifted on the wooden bench, trying to get comfortable. It didn't work. His injuries from his fall earlier had finally caught up with him, making his joints ache. He was pretty sure he'd bruised his tailbone, which made sitting on the hard bench quite literally a pain in the ass. On top of that, no one had bothered uncuffing his hands, and by now his arms were sore from being held behind his back for so long. He began to feel more sympathy for all the times Yuri had been roughed up by the knights and then tossed in jail, although at least Yuri usually deserved it.

The worst part was that he didn't know what was happening outside. Had Yuri successfully rescued Estellise? Had Alexei actually mounted an attack on Zaphias? Were his men alright? He needed to get out of here and figure out what was happening, but the cell didn't even have any windows. He wished Yuri were here. Yuri probably had loads of ideas for how to break out of jail – he spent enough time in them after all. That was something he rarely properly appreciated about Yuri. Even though all throughout their childhood Yuri consistently got them into trouble, he also consistently got them  _out_  of trouble afterward.

Heavy metallic footsteps echoed down the stone corridor outside Flynn's cell. He looked up curiously, hoping someone was finally coming to tell him what was going on. His expression hardened when he saw Alexei, and then his heart dropped into his stomach when he saw Estelle hovering in an orb of light behind him. Her body was limp, but she pulled herself together when she saw him. "F-Flynn!" she said. Her voice was strained and high-pitched, distorted by the field of aer surrounding her.

Flynn jumped to his feet. "Lady Estellise! Alexei, what is the meaning of this? Release Lady Estellise at once!"

Alexei gave him an amused look. "Rather demanding for a man in your position. Shouldn't you be more concerned about ensuring your own release?"

"Flynn, are you alright?" Estelle asked, giving him a worried look. The very fact that Estelle was still so worried about him when she was clearly in a much worse position broke his heart. That wasn't even counting the worry that ran through him when he realized Yuri's rescue attempt at Baction must not have been successful.

"I'm fine, Lady Estellise," he said. "Please, worry about yourself." He directed his attention to Alexei and said, "What do you intend to do with her?" Quite frankly, Flynn didn't care about himself right now. He didn't have time to worry about his bruised tailbone or sore arms when she was clearly in pain.

"Enough chit chat." Alexei raised an apatheia in one hand and the aer surrounding Estelle shone bright red. A hot flash of energy burst forth, accompanied by a scream of pain from Estelle, and Flynn flew backward, landing painfully on his tailbone once again.

Alexei unlocked the cell door and said, "The princess is of no concern at this moment. Now come with me; I have a proposition for you."

Flynn eyed him suspiciously, but he didn't have a lot of options at the moment. With a small grunt of pain he pushed himself back to his feet, which was difficult with his hands still locked behind his back. He exited the cell and glared at Alexei before turning his worried eyes on Estelle. Her body was limp again, her eyes half-lidded and her breathing slow and ragged. She slowly spun in circles within the orb like an abandoned marionette. When she passed him, though, her eyes flicked to him, so Flynn gave her what he hoped was an encouraging smile. He'd find some way to get them both out of this, no matter what it took.

Flynn followed Alexei as he paced down the hall, back the way he had come. Trying to run would be useless. With his hands tied he couldn't go very fast, and this outpost had thick walls, locked doors, and was crawling with members of the Royal Guard. He might have better luck trying to escape by sprouting wings and flying away.

"You are a good knight, Captain," Alexei said. "You're possibly the youngest person in imperial history to reach the rank of captain. It would be a shame to waste such a precious resource. You're going to work directly under me from now on."

"I don't think so," Flynn replied coolly. Just yesterday, the very idea of taking up such a tone with the commandant would be unthinkable. Now, especially seeing Estelle floating lifelessly behind him, it was all he could do to keep his tone icy and not give in to fiery rage.

"You misunderstand. I was not giving you the option, I was telling you what is going to happen."

"If you think I will ever accept orders from you again after everything you've done, you're crazier than I thought." He felt awful enough about following those orders in the past, so there was absolutely no way he would ever do such a thing in the future. Even the excuse that he hadn't known any better didn't pacify him, because he  _should_  have known better.

"You have been most useful to me over the years, Captain. I was quite disappointed to see you turn your back on me this morning at Yormgen. Out of respect for your service, I will give you an option." They stopped at the end of the corridor by a door that led to a central courtyard. "Continue to serve me loyally and without question, and I will release you immediately to take your place in the Royal Guard."

Flynn didn't even have to think about his answer. "No. Absolutely not."

Alexei nodded slightly. "Very well. I was not actually expecting you to agree, but I thought I should offer. It's alright, though. I have another plan for you."

He opened the door and led Flynn out into the courtyard. A handful of knights stood ready, not that Flynn was stupid enough to try to escape from here anyway. Flynn didn't have to ask what that other option was when he saw a gallows set up across the yard. An empty noose swung ominously in the slight breeze. Flynn's feet froze and his blood ran cold. He couldn't say this was entirely unexpected, but the threat of imminent death would send shivers through anyone.

Alexei saw him staring and said, "I don't suppose you'd like to change your answer?"

 _Say yes_ , a small voice in his brain whispered. It was tempting to give in to that voice, because that voice was the animal instinct that pushed for self-preservation at all costs. He wanted to say yes because Flynn did not want to die. He really,  _really_  did not want to die. There was so much left for him to do in this world, so many things he had yet to accomplish. He was only twenty-one, for heaven's sake!

Flynn took a deep breath and lifted his chin. "No," he said in a firm voice. He couldn't do it. He would not serve Alexei willingly, and if he had to choose between that and death, he didn't actually consider the former an option. "If you plan to kill me, then so be it. I will die with my honour intact."

"A white knight to the end, I see," Alexei said. "It takes a special kind of fool to choose his own demise when offered the chance to live."

It was beginning to look like both he and Estelle wouldn't be getting out of here alive after all. But, he wouldn't give up hope that she at least would be rescued. If he died, either Sodia or Yuri would pull through for Estelle. He was sure of it.

"F-Flynn…" Estelle's voice was small and weak, and Flynn's heart nearly broke in half when he looked over and saw her face.

He had accepted the fact that he was going to die, but he wished Estelle wasn't here to see it. That was just cruel. He tried to keep a smile on his face as he met her eyes, to reassure her that he was alright and that he wasn't scared. He wasn't sure how well he pulled it off, because in actuality he was so scared his hands were trembling and he had never been a very good liar.

"If you refuse to serve me, then I have no more need of you." Alexei gripped Flynn's arm and forced him to walk with him across the courtyard toward the gallows. As they walked, Alexei said, "By the way, before you die you should know the fates of your little friends you sent to Baction."

Flynn glanced at him, trying to keep the fear off his face. He was determined not to let his composure fall.

"That little band of fools was buried alive and crushed by the falling rubble when the shrine collapsed on top of them."

For a few seconds, the world seemed very far away.  _No_ , he thought to himself.  _If Alexei had proof that they were killed, if he'd seen the bodies, he'd gloat about that._ There was still the chance that they had gotten out alive. After all, getting trapped in a collapsing building carried a lot less finality than hanging. If anyone could find some way to get out of there alive, it was Yuri. Yuri would find a way out, rescue Estelle, and stop Alexei from whatever his grand scheme was. If he was going to die now, at least he could die knowing that Yuri would see to it that their dream of a reformed empire would come to be.

They reached the base of the gallows and another knight stepped forward.

"I'm afraid this will not be without pain for you, Flynn," Alexei said. "A typical execution carried out by the knights will snap the victim's neck right away, but I need your body fully functional afterward so this might be a bit prolonged."

Flynn glared at him in alarm, not sure what Alexei meant by needing his body afterward. Did Alexei plan on doing something with his corpse? Logically he shouldn't care because he'd already be dead, but even imagining what he might use him for made his flesh crawl. At the very least, he had hoped Alexei would allow him to die with dignity.

The knight led him up the steps of the wooden platform and directed him to stand over the trapdoor. His heart pounded in his chest, so loud he wondered if his executioner could hear it. He tried to calm his nerves. There was no use fighting like a cornered animal now. If he was going to die, he was going to do it with honour. He'd always had a feeling he'd die with his uniform on, although he'd hoped it would be on the field of battle. At the very least, he wouldn't give Alexei the satisfaction of pleading for his life.

"Flynn!" Estelle's voice screeched across the courtyard. She pressed her arms outward as if that would help her escape from the sphere she was imprisoned in. "Flynn, no,  _Flynn_!" The light from the aer shimmering around her glistened off her tear-streaked face.

"Be quiet, girl," Alexei said, raising the apatheia again. Estelle screamed in pain as the orb flashed with light, and then she fell silent again, limp as a rag doll.

The knight brought the noose around Flynn's neck and tightened it. From down below, Alexei asked, "I'm afraid I can't dally. The princess and I have an appointment in Zaphias. Any last words, Captain?"

Flynn considered for a moment. He could say something to Estelle, maybe give her a message to pass on to Yuri when he rescued her. What could he say, though? What could he  _possibly_  say as appropriate last words to the best friend who was like a brother to him? Nothing, he thought. There was nothing to say to Yuri. Nothing he could sum up in a few pithy words, and nothing that Yuri didn't already know. Instead, he took a deep breath, and then spoke slowly and carefully to make sure his voice didn't tremble. "It is against the law to execute a man without a trial."

Alexei laughed. "I am the commandant. I  _am_  the law."

"And that is why you will never be a just ruler."

Alexei smirked, and the next time he spoke, it was to the knight. "Drop him."

Flynn braced himself. All day, things had been happening so first. First Yormgen, then worrying about Heracles and Baction, and then getting ambushed by the Royal Guard outside of Zaphias. Just this morning he'd had complete confidence in Alexei, and now the bastard was smirking at him as he was about to hang for the crime of not mindlessly following him in his quest for world domination.

Then, in these last few moments, the seconds started slowing down for the first time all day. He became acutely aware of the breeze that rustled his hair and the prickle of the rough rope around his neck. The smell of dead grass filled his nose, and somewhere nearby a bird sang, apparently not aware of the solemnity of the moment. The world seemed so bright and inviting, and he didn't want to leave it yet. The last uninterrupted thought to cross through his brain was,  _I never got around to asking Yuri to teach me how to play poker._

Then the knight pulled the lever, and Flynn dropped through the trapdoor.


	2. Missing

Two thoughts consumed Yuri's mind throughout the entire week long trek across northern Illyccia and through Zopheir, and both of them were things Estelle had said.

_"Yuri, please, before I can hurt anyone else… kill me now!"_

Even thinking about what she'd asked of him made him feel sick to his stomach. He hadn't told anyone else what she'd said. She'd made the request of him, and it was his responsibility to decide how to act. He didn't want to drag the others down into his moral dilemma.

Besides, the others wouldn't agree with him. Estelle was clearly in so much pain, and if rescuing her from Alexei was impossible, it would be kinder to kill her and set her free from that. Karol wouldn't understand. In fact, Karol would probably hate him for this afterward, but Yuri could live with that if it was the only way to save Estelle. He didn't even want to think about furious Rita would be. Judith might agree with him, but he wasn't positive and didn't want to risk her getting mad and telling the others. And then there was Raven, but… who knew what that old man was thinking.

No, it would be better to deal with this himself. If anyone was going to kill Estelle, it was going to be him. He wouldn't force his friends to have to make a choice about this, too. He'd always taken care of things himself and saw no reason to pull the others into this now.

Even though he had already decided that he would kill Estelle if he couldn't save her, he found himself almost dreading leaving Zopheir behind and moving closer to Zaphias. As they left the snowy fields and set out onto the plains around Halure, the fact that he might have to actually kill Estelle soon settled over his mind. It was like a heavy weight dragging him down.

"Yuri… are you ok?" Karol was also like a heavy weight dragging him down, but that was because he was about a hundred pounds and currently on Yuri's back. Raven had carried him for most of the way out of the Blade Drifts, but after stopping to rest Yuri volunteered to carry him for a little while.

"I'm fine, Karol," Yuri said. "Worry about yourself for now, alright?"

Karol rested his forehead on the back of Yuri's neck. "I feel a lot better already. Don't worry about me. You're the one who's clearly upset."

"I'm not upset," Yuri said. "At least, I'm worried about Estelle, but no more than the rest of you."

"No, the kid has a point," Raven said. "Ever since we crashed near Nor Harbour, you've had this look on your face like you bit into a lemon and forgot ta spit it out."

"What's on your mind, Yuri?" Judith said.

"I thought I heard Estelle say something to you," Karol said. "I couldn't hear what she said, though. Is that what's bothering you?"

"Talk to us," Judith said.

Yuri rolled his eyes and tried to push their prying away. "When did I walk into a group therapy session? You guys are the ones who need to relax."

"If one of us is out of sorts, it can drag the whole guild down," Judith said. "Keeping your feelings bottled up is detrimental to the good of the guild."

"Yeah, Yuri," Karol said, lightly kicking his thigh. "What did Estelle say?"

Yuri gritted his teeth. He couldn't tell them what she'd asked of him. But, she'd said something else as well. He hadn't mentioned it to the others because it didn't affect them, but they would certainly believe him if he said it was the sole thing worrying him.

"Alright, alright," Yuri said. "You guys are tenacious." He sighed. He did feel bad about lying to them about the key thing on his mind, but he  _was_  worrying about this, too. "When I tried to go after Estelle, one of the first things she tried to say was, 'Yuri, Flynn is-' and then she got cut off. Now I keep wondering what she was trying to say."

"Aw, I see," Raven said. "You're just worryin' about your friend. How sweet." He put his hand over his chest and said, "Ah, to have such a deep bond of friendship. I envy ya, kid."

Yuri glared at Raven in annoyance.

"Poor Yuri," Karol said. "If you're worrying about your friend, you should talk to us so we can help you."

"Unless you can tell me what Estelle meant, I don't see how telling you about my problem is supposed to help."

Karol wrapped his arms around Yuri's neck and squeezed. "Don't worry, Yuri, we'll support you!"

"That's right," Judith said. "If you're worrying about your friend, you should talk out your feelings with us."

"Yeah," Karol said, "it's not healthy to keep everything bottled up."

"Express yourself, Yuri," Judith said. "Maybe you should take up art. I've heard that's good for channelling emotions."

"That's a good idea," Karol said. "Art therapy is great for getting your feelings out. Does anyone have any crayons?"

"Can Yuri even draw?" Judith asked. "That might be interesting to see in its own right."

Karol laughed. "Yeah, maybe that wanted poster was taken from a self-portrait!"

"Yuri drew a picture of himself and Flynn once," Rita said. "Estelle told me she saw the picture hanging on the wall in Flynn's room." She smirked at Yuri as he glared daggers at her. "She said it was pretty cute."

"Aw, that's so sweet," Judith said. "Maybe you should draw an updated picture of the two of you to work out your feelings about Flynn."

"I think I have some paper and pencils in my bag," Karol said.

"Hey," Yuri said, "I could very easily drop you, Karol." Yuri glared at all of them. This was why he never told them when he was upset about something. He knew it was partially his own fault, because when they first met he'd taken so long to start opening up that now that he was willing to mention when something was bothering him, they inevitably teased him about it. Of course, this only made him more reluctant to open up in the future, creating a vicious cycle of teasing. But, at the end of the day, he supposed he had to admit that it was nice to know his friends really did care about him, even if they were annoying about it.

"Anyway, you're probably making a big deal about nothing," Rita said. "Estelle was probably just trying to tell you that Flynn is with Ioder, so don't worry about the prince."

"I suppose," Yuri said. "Although that assumes that she thinks I'm overly concerned about Ioder."

"What I'm wonderin'," Raven said, "is how Estelle would know anything about Flynn in the first place. I was under the impression Alexei hasn't let her out of his sight, so how does she know what Flynn is up ta?"

Judith said, "Perhaps Alexei was really mad because of something Flynn did, and she overheard him complaining about it."

"That sounds likely," Yuri said. "Flynn has a way of pissing people off."

"Sure," Karol said, "but I bet he picked it up from you, Yuri."

Judith giggled. "Nobody pisses people off like Yuri does."

Yuri frowned. "Yeah, well if I piss people off it's probably because they were pieces of crap in the first place."

Karol laughed. "That's only the people you intentionally piss off, Yuri. You have a way of irritating people."

"Alright, that's it." Yuri stopped short, bent over a bit and let go of Karol's legs, sending the kid toppling to the ground with a shout.

"Ah! Yuri!" He hit the ground hard while Rita laughed at his plight. Yuri wasn't too concerned about him, since he'd bent over in the first place so that Karol wouldn't have as far to fall.

"It sounds to me like you've got your strength back," Yuri said. "Can you walk from here?"

Karol sat up and brushed his arms off. "Yeah, I think so."

"Good. Let's hurry up and get to Halure, then." He held out his hand to help Karol up, but as soon as Karol grabbed it, he yanked hard, catching Yuri off guard and bringing him crashing to the ground with a shout of surprise.

Judith looked down at him with a small smile. "That's payback." Then she held out her hand to Karol, pulling him up to his feet.

Yuri did not get such an offer, but he didn't really mind. He was actually smiling now as he got to his knees, his troubling thoughts about Flynn and Estelle pushed to the side for now. Repede nudged his side, and Yuri got to his feet. He scratched Repede between the ears and said, "That's right, Repede, you're a better friend than those clowns. You actually appreciate me."

Repede barked, and they were on their way again.

* * *

It was another couple hours of hiking across the plains before eventually they reached Halure, and then a couple more hours to find a place to stay with all the refugees from the capital. Looking around, Yuri's mood got progressively worse again. There were plenty of fancy clothes indicating refugees from the Royal Quarter, but he hadn't seen a single familiar face from the Lower Quarter.

Eventually, they found a room at the inn and let Karol lie down to get some much-needed rest after his big fight this morning. Raven stayed behind to make sure he was alright, while Yuri and the others left the inn to see if they could get any information about the situation at the capital.

As they approached the mayor's house, the door opened and a few familiar faces walked out. Leading them was Ioder, accompanied by two council members, with Sodia bringing up the rear. Yuri's worry about Flynn dissipated. If Ioder and Sodia were here, Flynn couldn't be far behind.

Ioder stopped when he saw them, and instantly smiled. "Oh, I'm so glad you're all safe."

Sodia glared at him, but to her credit she didn't instantly whip out her sword and attempt to arrest him. Perhaps she had finally learned that there was a time and a place for such things.

"Huh, so it's you, then?" Yuri said. "You're the one who got the inn to open up for the refugees."

Ioder nodded. "That's right. So many refugees escaped from the capital with only the shirts on their backs; I thought this was the least the empire could do for them."

"That's something, I guess." The idea that the government had actually picked itself up and done something to help people took Yuri by surprise, although he couldn't help but notice that he still hadn't seen anyone from the Lower Quarter. He got the sinking feeling that once again, the Lower Quarter had been left out of the good fortune. "I'm mostly worried about the capital," he said. "What is the situation there?"

Ioder looked nervously at the unhappy council members beside him, and then hung his head. In a tired voice, he explained everything that had happened. Yuri listened silently, trying not to imagine the chaos that must be overtaking the Lower Quarter even as Ioder spoke. Had his people gotten out in time? Where were they?

"How did you make it out unharmed?" Judith asked with concern.

"We very nearly didn't," Ioder said. "Sodia and members of the Flynn Brigade arrived just in time to hold off Alexei's men and give us and refugees time to escape."

"Sodia?" Yuri said, looking to her. "What about Flynn? Wasn't he with you?"

Sodia looked at Yuri in alarm. "You mean, you don't know where Captain Flynn is?"

Yuri shook his head. "You told me on the Heracles that he'd gone off on his own to take care of Ioder. I assumed he was with him."

"I haven't seen Flynn in weeks," Ioder said. "Do you think there is reason to be concerned?"

"I thought he was with you," Sodia said. "Captain Flynn took off to protect Master Ioder. He told us he would rejoin the brigade once Ioder was safe, but he didn't come back. I led the brigade to the capital, worried that he had encountered trouble protecting Master Ioder. We arrived just in time, but Flynn wasn't there. I saw your flying ship shot down by Heracles earlier, and assumed Flynn had gone to your aid and gotten stuck behind Ehmead Hill with the rest of you."

"No," Yuri said. "I haven't seen Flynn since Yormgen." His worry about Estelle's words came back to him.  _'Flynn is-'_. Flynn is  _what_ , Estelle? Yuri hadn't been this concerned about finding Flynn since he and Estelle had originally set out from Zaphias.

"Oh, dear," Ioder said, looking around the group. "So… nobody knows where Flynn is?"

"He must have run into trouble between leaving your brigade and arriving in Zaphias," Judith said.

Whatever trouble he'd gotten into, it had something to do with Alexei, or else Estelle wouldn't know anything about it. Yuri pushed these thoughts aside for now. "Alright… there's nothing we can do about Flynn right now. What about the people from the Lower Quarter? I haven't seen any of them here. What happened to them?"

When Ioder hung his head and refused to look him in the eye, he didn't have to explain further. "I'm sorry," Ioder said. "I haven't seen anyone either."

"They must have been left behind with all that aer flooding out," Judith said.

Yuri's fists clenched. One of the council members babbled some excuses, but quite frankly Yuri didn't care. He didn't know what he expected from nobles. They might talk big about the good of the empire and protecting the people, but there always reached a point where 'regretfully, some sacrifices have to be made,' and funnily enough it was always the people of the Lower Quarter who got sacrificed.

"We did all we could!" the councilman said.

"Oh yeah?" Yuri didn't let himself say anything else, because that would probably lead to an argument which would lead to him punching the man in the face, and that wouldn't help anyone. He shook his head in disgust. "I'll be at the inn."

He stalked back up the road, back to worrying again. Now he was equal parts worried about Estelle, Flynn, and the people of the Lower Quarter. That bastard Alexei was going to pay for all the suffering he'd caused. The person he thought about the most right now was Flynn. Yuri knew exactly where Estelle was and he knew what was happening to the Lower Quarter, so all he could do there was get angry. The question of what the hell had happened to Flynn ate at his mind. Where could he be? It wasn't like Flynn to take off without letting anyone know where he was, so Yuri could only assume that he was in trouble of some kind. That bastard, making him worry about him when he already had so much else on his plate. Wherever he was, he'd better have a damn good excuse for being late.

* * *

A week earlier, Flynn woke up. This came as a great surprise to him, because he was entirely certain that he was dead. He remembered that part very clearly. He'd probably dangled from the noose for about two minutes before losing consciousness, but from his perspective it might as well have been two years. The first second alone could easily pass for a century. He'd been prepared for hanging to hurt, but he could never have prepared himself for exactly how much.

He  _still_  hurt, which was why he knew he was alive. After all, there was no way heaven could hurt this much. Oddly enough, his chest hurt almost as much as his neck. The throbbing, burning ache around his throat was to be expected, but why did his left breast feel the same way and why did it feel like there was something metallic lying on top of him?

There was no point putting it off any longer, so he opened his eyes to see where he was. He saw a white ceiling, and then turned his head to look around. This might not have been a good idea, because turning his head set off such a stabbing ache in his bruised neck he nearly fell unconscious again. Ok, lesson learned, don't try to move your neck around after surviving a hanging.

In the brief glimpse he'd seen, though, he surmised that he was in the castle's infirmary. When did he get to Zaphias? Where was Alexei? Where was Lady Estellise? More importantly, where was his shirt? He glanced down at his bare chest, careful not to move his neck any more than he needed to. His chest was wrapped in bandages, but he could feel something hard underneath them.

He reached up and touched the hard spot, feeling something round and solid beneath the bandages, and then winced at a sudden stab of pain. Whatever this thing was, it seemed to be embedded in his flesh. From the brief movement when he'd touched it, he could tell that it wasn't just planted on the surface, but buried deep within his chest. What the heck was going on?

He wouldn't find out lying here. With great effort he sat up, trying to keep his neck as still as possible. Every inch of movement was agony in his neck and chest, but he needed to figure out where he was and what was going on. While he was pleased to find that he wasn't dead, he'd enjoy an explanation. Once he was upright, he pushed up from the bed and shakily got to his feet.

His head spun, but he forced himself onward. There was a window by the bed, so he made his way there get a look outside. He leaned against the windowsill and rested his forehead against the cool pane of glass. When he looked outside, he began to wonder if he really was alive after all.

They were in Zaphias alright, but a thick reddish fog hung over the city and twisting roots and vines held the buildings in a tight grip. He saw movement and thought it was people, but looked closer and saw monsters prowling the city. Had he died after all and this was hell? His heart started beating faster as he wondered what the hell had happened, both to himself and the world. He could feel each beat sharply in his chest, and something about it was… different. Curiously, he raised his fingers to the solid thing in his chest, and could dimly feel his pulse reverberating through it.

He still didn't know what was going on, but he needed to get out of here. If that really was Zaphias out there, then the empire was in serious trouble. He had to find Master Ioder and make sure he was alright, and then he needed to rescue Lady Estellise. After that he needed to find Yuri and make sure he hadn't been killed at Baction, and finally he needed to rejoin his brigade, who were probably worrying about him.

A quick glance around the room showed that there was nothing he could use as a weapon. That was alright, since he wasn't in the best condition to fight anyway. He carefully opened the door and stuck his head out, glancing around the hallway for guards. The hallway was empty, so he crept out of the room. The slick marble floors froze his bare feet, but at least he recognized where he was. His own bedroom was on this floor, so he aimed himself in that direction and set off, walking quickly with all his nerves on high alert. He didn't have the energy to spare to cast First Aid at the moment, but in his room, he'd find apple gels. He'd also find proper clothing, armour, and best of all, a sword. If he could get fully equipped, he was sure he could break out of here and start working on his list of goals.

A pair of Royal Guards turned around the corner just before he reached it, and he froze. They stared at him in surprise, and then one of them said, "You shouldn't be out of bed."

There was nothing within reach he could use as a weapon, so Flynn did the only thing he could think of and ran. He was usually a good runner, especially since he was used to running in armour, so running in plain clothes should be a breeze. Unfortunately, he'd forgotten to calculate the fact that he was already physically exhausted and in a lot of pain, so he didn't get far.

"Unhand me!" he shouted one of the knights grabbed his arm and pulled him to a stop.

"You're not supposed to be out of bed," the knight said.

"What's going on? Where is Alexei?" His voice was hoarse and speaking was painful, which he chalked up to a side effect of the hanging. He struggled against the knights, determined to break free. His chances of success were minimal, but he wasn't thinking entirely straight. After everything that had happened today – at least, he thought it was the same day – he was scared, confused, in pain, and honestly panicking. No one would tell him what the hell was going on, or why he was alive, or what was going to happen next, or even what this thing in his chest was.

"Oh, good," said a new voice. "You're alive."

The knights straightened up, though they couldn't salute without letting go of Flynn.

"Alexei," Flynn growled. "What is the meaning of this? What have you done to me?"

"You really ought to calm down before you reopen your wounds. You recently underwent major surgery, after all."

Flynn's heart pounded as he struggled to pull away from the knights. He wasn't feeling quite as much pain right now, but that was probably due to the adrenaline surging through him. "What surgery? What's going on? What is this thing in my chest?"

Alexei glanced down at his wrist. He had some sort of blastia bracelet, similar to the bodhi blastia Yuri wore. A small control hologram hovered above it, and he silently tapped a few buttons.

Flynn's chest heaved for breath to fuel his frantic outburst, but suddenly he felt his heart rate slowing down. Flynn stared at Alexei in confusion, and then Alexei reached out and rested two fingers on the side of Flynn's neck to take his pulse. He didn't seem to care that this made Flynn hiss in pain from the deep bruising and rope burn.

"Good, it seems to be working perfectly," Alexei said.

By now Flynn had lost the energy to fight back against the knights. He was torn between the adrenaline still coursing through him telling him run or fight and get the hell out of here, and the fact that his heart was barely beating, making him lethargic.

"Take him back to the infirmary before he hurts himself."

Flynn panted for breath. "What's… happening?" All he knew was that somehow Alexei had used his blastia to artificially alter Flynn's own heart rate, and the very fact that Alexei could do that freaked him out.

The knights half-led, half-dragged Flynn back down the hall to the infirmary. Once inside, they set him down on the bed.

"Go to sleep, Captain," Alexei said. "You've only been alive for half an hour and if you persist in thrashing about you will die again."

 _Again_. So he really had died. That meant that Alexei had somehow brought him back to life, and Flynn had a feeling that this had been his plan all along. This knowledge made him bristle with anger. What was the point of putting him through a hanging if he was just going to bring him back again?

One of the knights grabbed his arm and held it out, palm-up. Alexei grabbed a syringe and approached Flynn, who immediately started struggling again. "What is that?" he asked. "What are you  _doing_?" He was sure that at least fifty percent of his anxiety would go away if someone would just tell him  _what the hell was happening_.

Alexei was visibly annoyed with Flynn's panicking, though Flynn didn't know what Alexei expected after killing him, resurrecting him, planting strange devices in his chest, and then not telling him what any of it was for. "It's a sedative. If I wanted you dead I wouldn't have brought you back."

"No!" Flynn protested as Alexei stabbed the needle into his arm. He didn't want to go back to sleep, he had things to do! Cold liquid shot through his vein.

"You've already reopened your wounds," Alexei said, and Flynn glances down at his chest to see blood seeping through the white bandages. "This is for your own good."

Flynn took a deep breath as the knight dropped his arm. Every primal instinct was still freaking out, but Flynn tried hard to contain his urge to shout and try to run. "Please, just tell me what the situation is. Why am I here and what do you plan to do with me?"

"I already told you," Alexei said. "You are going to work for me now. You refused my offer to work for me by your own free will, so I was forced to take the alternative route. Your heart has been replaced by a blastia – a blastia which I control. I have improved and perfected the formula since I first used it on Captain Schwann ten years ago. Now that Captain Schwann is dead, you should be a suitable replacement."

Flynn creased his eyebrows. "What…? A… blastia?" A blastia heart? And what was this about Schwann? He had trouble focusing, because the sedative was already kicking in.

"The procedure can only be carried out on a dead man, although killing you did have the added bonus of punishing you for your disobedience."

Remaining sitting upright was becoming a problem. Dammit, he was finally getting some answers and now he was falling asleep again! One more important thing needed to be addressed before he lost his hold on consciousness. "Where is… Lady Estellise?"

Alexei smirked. "Don't worry, the princess is in good hands. So far she has been performing her role perfectly, just as I am sure you will once you've recovered."

"'M not gonna… work for… you…" His eyes flickered closed before he forced them back open, and then he found himself falling backward, unable to stop himself. Luckily one of the knights caught him before he landed and lowered him slowly back onto the bed. He pulled his legs up and twisted around so that he was lying there properly.

Alexei ignored him and looked to one of the knights. "Get a doctor in here to fix the stitches around the implant, and remind him that I don't want any healing magic used until his body has more firmly adjusted to the blastia. Introducing aer might throw off the blastia's rhythm since it hasn't taken a firm hold yet."

"Yes, sir!" The knight saluted, or at least Flynn thought he did. He could hear the tell-tale clank of armour, but someone had glued his eyes shut.

"Pleasant dreams, Captain," Alexei said, and then Flynn heard three pairs of metallic footsteps leave the room. He was left in darkness, dulled pain throbbing at the edge of sensation, until fighting the drug became too difficult and he slipped into a dark sleep.


	3. Rebirth

The next time Flynn woke up, he felt no pain at all. In fact, he felt  _great_. His eyes flashed open and he immediately sat upright. Where was he? A quick look around the room informed him that he was in the castle's infirmary. When had that happened? He racked his brain, trying to remember the events of the last few days. There had been something about Alexei…

Hazy memories swam back into focus. He knew he should probably be devastated about what had happened, but his mood was dragged up by fuzzy bubbles floating around in his brain. The only clear thought able to cut through the haze was that he needed to do something about Alexei. If Alexei wasn't stopped, the whole empire was in danger and… the orangey sky outside cast a strange tint across the room. It made the room look weird, but at least the bed was nice. He'd been camping out on a military cot for weeks, so a soft mattress was a pleasant – dammit!

He groaned and leaned forward, pressing his face into his hands. Alexei. He needed to concentrate on Alexei, but his thoughts slid around on ice. As soon as he steered himself back in the direction of Alexei, he got nothing but a brief glimpse of clear thought before slipping away again.

"I need to get out of here." Saying it out loud helped him concentrate. He pushed the sheets aside and stood up. The abrupt movement awakened aches throughout his body, but they seemed to be happening to someone else and didn't bother him at all.

His next task was to figure out what to do next. He had finally cemented 'getting out of here' as an anchor in his mind, but he kept running in circles between 'walk out the front door', 'wait, Alexei has guards, they won't let me', 'but I need to get out of here', and looping back to 'I should walk out the front door.' Dammit, this wasn't working. He briefly wondered if Alexei had also taken out his brain and filled his head with cotton along with the blastia in his chest.

It might be easier to think if the damn walls would stop moving. They kept shifting away from him, and he experimentally shifted his head back and forth to watch the effect. He stood and stared for possibly over a minute, staring at the shifting walls in rapture. Only a twinge of distant pain in his neck reminded him that he was supposed to be doing something.

Flynn's face contorted with concentration and he groaned in frustration, and then he announced to the empty room, "I think they drugged me."

That was the only explanation he could think of to explain the bubbles in his brain, although he wasn't able to think too deeply about it right now. This was irritating; he needed to concentrate. He needed to get out of here. The lack of pain was nice, but he couldn't take advantage of that when he had the strategic capabilities of a bowl of pudding.

Talking things out was easier than trying to hold on to his slippery thoughts. "I need to get out of here. I can't get out of here because of Alexei. I need to get rid of Alexei…. I need to kill Alexei." It was a simple chain of reasoning, but given the mush that was his brain he felt proud of himself for completing it.

Kill Alexei. Yes, that was another anchor his brain could latch onto. He strode out of the infirmary and into the hall, dimly aware in the back of his brain that he wore nothing but a loose pair of pants and had no weapon. He didn't know how he was going to kill Alexei like this, but worrying about that slipped away.

As he marched down the hallway, he let his mind wander. It was too difficult to try to stay focused, so his thoughts glided between wondering where Yuri was to marvelling at the shininess of the floor. This in turned was pushed out of the way when bright red flowers sitting in a vase caught his eye and distracted him. Calling the flowers red didn't do them justice. They were the reddest red Flynn had seen in his entire life, but he couldn't think of a word to describe them. He settled on ' _really_  red'.

"Argh…" Flynn rubbed his forehead with his palm, trying to clear his head. Had he actually gotten distracted by flowers? It took him a few seconds of struggling thought before he remembered what he was trying to do: kill Alexei. Come  _on_ , Flynn, focus!

He found his way to the commandant's office without consciously thinking about it, since his legs remembered better than his head did. Before walking in, doubt pulled him back. Was it really alright to simply walk in and murder Alexei in cold blood? Wasn't that what he'd argued with Yuri about? Then the doubt slid away as his mind drifted to thoughts of Yuri, and then thoughts of Estelle, and then wondering why he was standing in front of Alexei's office.

 _You need to kill Alexei_. Right, thank you, tiny voice of clarity.

Without further hesitation, he barged into the room. Alexei sat at his desk, and snapped his head up at the sudden intrusion. He stared at Flynn with a mixture of confusion and annoyance. "Captain? What do you think you're doing here?"

Flynn didn't answer. He'd latched onto the one solid thought in his brain and he wasn't going to let anything distract him. Alexei needed to be stopped and he was going to do it. He walked right around the desk, and just as Alexei started speaking again, Flynn lunged at him. He clenched his hands around Alexei's throat, gritting his teeth and glaring at him in fury. See how  _he_  liked slowly strangling to death.

Flynn had maybe two seconds of success before Alexei grabbed his arms and threw him away like a rag doll. He couldn't move for a few seconds upon hitting the ground. He stared at the ceiling in a daze until Alexei's face appeared above him.

"That was a very foolish thing to do. What exactly did you think you were going to accomplish?"

Flynn stared at him, trying to gather his thoughts. Getting thrown to the floor had scrambled his already fuzzy brain. His body hurt and he knew he would care about that once the drugs left his system. Alexei was to blame for this pain, and Alexei was the reason he was stuck in Zaphias and not with his brigade. He needed to get out of here, but Alexei wouldn't let him. With great effort he pieced together all these fuzzy thoughts and arrived at a coherent conclusion, and triumphantly declared, "You are an asshole."

Alexei stared at him for a few seconds, and then said, "…I see. Are you, perhaps, still under the influence of painkillers?"

Flynn took a few seconds to process the question. He wished Alexei would just speak clearly and simply, because complex thought wasn't his forte at the moment. "I… think so?"

"I suppose it would be useless to punish you for your foolish actions in this state."

Another few seconds to process this sentence, and then even more to try and work out if he should say 'yes' to agree that he shouldn't be punished or 'no' to say 'no, don't punish me.' Thinking about this caused his mind to drift into thoughts about how strange and confusing language could be. Dammit, Flynn, concentrate!

Alexei gave up waiting for Flynn to find something to say. "Get up. You're embarrassing yourself."

Flynn pushed himself to his feet and then immediately turned and started leaving the office.

"Captain," Alexei said firmly. "I do not believe I dismissed you."

"Uh… right." Flynn paused and turned around again. Stupid,  _stupid_  head, why couldn't he remember simple protocol? Another thought crossed his mind and he blurted it out before it was even complete. "Wait, I don't care. I'm not taking orders from you."

Alexei raised an eyebrow. "Is that so? I'm afraid you don't have much choice in the matter. Your life is under my control now."

Right, the blastia in his heart. Every time he thought about it, he was reminded of the throbbing pain in his chest. Perhaps he should be grateful for being so drugged, because the still-healing hole in his chest would probably be cripplingly painful otherwise. Of course, this wouldn't even be an issue if Alexei hadn't done this to him. "Why me?"

"Because you are a useful knight. You will be even more useful to me once I crush that self-righteousness out of you."

Alexei looked so smug and so sure of himself, but Flynn couldn't help but laugh. Alexei's smugness didn't drop as he asked, "And what exactly is so funny?"

"When Yuri gets here, he's going to kill you."

"Ah, yes, that rouge friend of yours," Alexei said, smirk widening. "I'm afraid I shot his ship down only yesterday. I would be impressed if he survived that crash."

Flynn shook his head. Very few thoughts were able to take hold in his mind right now, and the idea that Yuri might die in something as mundane as a ship crash didn't have a chance. With a confident smile he said, "No. Yuri is alive. Yuri will come."

"So certain are you? Even if he is alive, I doubt he would be so foolish as to attempt a direct attack on the castle."

"Yes he will," Flynn said, mindlessly putting his thoughts into words. "I know exactly what Yuri will do. He's my best friend."

"Hm…" Alexei's smirk turned thoughtful. "So you would say you can predict exactly what actions he will take?"

Flynn nodded. "He's my best friend." In the fuzz of his brain, the fact that Yuri was his best friend was something he could state without any hesitation or confusion.

"Interesting," Alexei said slowly. "Perhaps you might be even more useful than I thought."

Flynn had the sinking feeling that he'd said something he shouldn't have, but figuring out the implications right now was impossible.

"And now, Captain, I believe it is time for you to go back to bed."

Flynn shook his head. He didn't want to sleep right now; there was still so much he needed to do. He needed to escape, for one. That was the only one he could put his finger on at the moment, but it was pretty important. "I don't want to." He started leaving the office again, hurrying toward the door. Screw Alexei, screw the Royal Guard – he was leaving. He'd walk right out of Zaphias if he had to.

"Stop right there, Captain."

Flynn ignored him and left the office. He started down the hall, but when he heard the door open and Alexei follow him, he started running. He was going to get out of this damn castle if it was the last thing he did. Maybe by the time he got out the drugs would have left his system and he'd be able to think clearly. He ran as fast as he could, but he didn't get far. As his pace quickened, the walls started moving again and then the floor swooped upward up at him and suddenly he was flat on his chest and couldn't quite remember how he got there.

Alexei strolled over and stood next to him, not offering him any assistance. "Get up."

 _Dammit_ , that had been stupid again. The rational part of his brain, buried beneath layers of cotton and bubbles, screamed in frustration at how much of a fool he was making of himself. Flynn slowly got to his feet, numbly registering that the hard fall onto the marble floor had not done great things to his chest. He was probably going to regret this once the drugs wore off, but for now everything felt light and fluffy. His thoughts drifted again, careening away from the situation at hand to contemplate the floor. Gee, had the floor always been this shiny? It was so smooth and reflective, like a quiet pond. Standing on it was like walking on water.

"Are you listening to me, Captain?"

Oh, crap, Alexei was saying something. He'd been too busy being mesmerized by the floor to even notice. He quickly tried to explain what he'd been so distracted by, but somewhere around his excited description of the floor being a pond, Alexei smacked him across the face and said, "Stop talking."

"But-"

"That is an order, Captain."

The slap had sent his head spinning, and it was still trying to come to a stop. "Yeah. Ok."

"What do you say to your commanding officer when given an order?"

Flynn stared at him, wondering why Alexei was so cruel as to give him a pop quiz like this. He racked his brain, trying to figure out what Alexei wanted. It was frustrating because he  _knew_  this one, he knew he knew it, but he couldn't find it. At long last, he stared at Alexei and said, "Um… yes… sir?"

Alexei was not amused by Flynn's confusion, but said, "Close enough. Follow me, Captain, and don't try to speak."

"Ok."

Alexei glanced at him disapprovingly, and he corrected himself. "Yes, sir." Clearly leaving was not an option right now. Killing Alexei was also not an option. With the only two things he was sure he wanted to do out of his reach, he couldn't think of anything else to do so he followed Alexei.

He did so silently at first, his mind fluttering around between various topics without any real concentration. They passed a window and all thoughts were figuratively pushed out of it. "The sky is orange," he announced.

Alexei glanced out the window, but didn't say anything.

Flynn stopped walking to stare out the window in wonder. A pinkish-orange haze hung over Zaphias, giving the sky a unique colour.

"Move along," Alexei said. "We do not have time to look at the sky."

When Flynn didn't immediately move, Alexei grabbed his arm and roughly pulled him away. Flynn started following again, letting his mind drift. He ran through several topics, none of them lasting more than a few seconds. It was frustrating not being able to concentrate on anything. He had a lot of things to think about but no mental capacity to do it.

After a long silence, he asked, "Are you going to kill me like you killed Schwann?" He still didn't know exactly what the deal with Schwann was, but he'd suddenly remembered Alexei mentioning killing him and replacing him with Flynn. Oddly, the idea of Alexei killing and discarding him didn't worry him too much, but he couldn't really worry about anything right now.

"Eventually, perhaps," Alexei said. "I will keep you around for as long as you are useful. I used to have a much firmer hold over Schwann's blastia, but over time it became integrated into his body and became resistant to outside control. I've improved the formula since then, though. It should be at least fifteen to twenty years until I lose use of you."

Flynn understood very little of what Alexei had said. He'd heard 'eventually, perhaps' and then the effort of following such a long and technical explanation became too much for him. In the end, all he got out of it was that Alexei planned to use him as a slave for twenty years and then murder him when he couldn't any more. Even in his mentally-altered state, he could work out so many things wrong with that and so many reasons he didn't want that to happen. Alexei had hurt so many people already and was going to keep hurting them, and the idea of helping him do that made Flynn's heart hurt even though he didn't have one anymore.

He couldn't figure out how to vocalize all his angry feelings, so he summed it up with a declaration of, "You are not very nice." He nodded to himself in satisfaction, certain he had really told Alexei's what was what.

They reached the infirmary again and Alexei led him inside. "Lie down," Alexei commanded.

"I don't want to," Flynn said. He couldn't remember why, but he knew he didn't want to lie down again.

"That was an order."

"I don't care. I'm going home."  _I need to get out of here_. Maybe he should try again. He started walking away, but then Alexei grabbed his arm and jerked him back. He slapped Flynn across the face, which might have been more effective if it didn't leave Flynn more confused than in pain. He'd registered the pain, but it felt like it was happening to someone else. "That hurt."

Alexei pushed Flynn down on the bed and then grabbed the syringe again. He held Flynn's wrist in a bruising grip and inserted the needle into the crook of Flynn's arm. "The next time I speak to you, you had better be coherent."

"I don't want to sleep," Flynn protested as Alexei pulled the syringe out and set it aside.

"You had better get used to following my orders."

Flynn wanted to argue, but his eyes flickered and he said, "Wow, I'm really tired." He didn't want to sleep now, but his eyes felt so heavy. Why didn't he want to sleep? He couldn't remember. If thinking clearly had been difficult before, it increased tenfold as the sedative started kicking in. He fought against the coming darkness for as long as he could, before eventually surrounding to sleep once more.

* * *

Flynn woke up a few times after that, but never for very long. Once his eyes flickered open and he blurrily saw Alexei leaning over him and messing with the control panel hovering over his blastia. He tried to move his arms, but they were heavier than concrete and when he tried to tell Alexei to get away from him, all that came out was a groan. He tried to wake himself up and stay conscious, because the idea that Alexei could do anything to him in his sleep was frightening. He'd already ripped out his heart; there was no telling what else he might be planning. Try as he might, a heavy black fog closed over his mind and dragged him back into sleep.

When he finally woke up completely, he blinked at the ceiling and took a few moments to remember where he was. This didn't take too long, because at long last his head was clear. It was like finally surfacing after holding his head underwater. Ever since his death, whenever he'd been awake he'd either been panicky and in pain, fuzzy-headed, or groggily sedated. It was a relief to have control of his mind, even if it came at the expense of a constant dull ache from his neck and chest.

He shifted his position and heard something rattle. He carefully sat up and pulled at his leg, and saw a metal cuff shackling him to the end of the bed. He fell back against the pillow with a sigh. After the first two times he'd woken up and went running around the castle in confusion and panic, he supposed Alexei wasn't taking any chances. With nothing else to do, he lay still and thought about his options.

His heart had been replaced with a blastia. He hadn't even known that was possible. What exactly was this going to entail? Were there health effects he should know about? What kind of maintenance did this require? With a scowl, he realized that there probably wasn't any point worrying about this. Alexei would take complete control over it, if his memory of the bastard artificially lowering his heart rate the other day was accurate. One of the few things he remembered from his drug-addled adventure was the fact that Alexei planned to kill him off as soon as he couldn't use him like a pawn. The other day, Yuri had accused him of being Alexei's puppet, but he really was now, wasn't he? How could he fight back against the man who could turn his heart off with the flick of a button?

But he  _would_  fight back. He'd find a way. Alexei thought he had Flynn under control, but all he'd done was bring Flynn right into his inner circle and then lowered his guard. All Flynn had to do was find an opening and assassinate Alexei. He was pretty sure he'd tried that the other day, but he counted on being more successful now that he wasn't on a drug high. Saving Estelle and the empire would fall into place once that was accomplished. He was separated from his men, injured, and trapped behind enemy lines, but he wasn't going down without a fight.

The door opened, and Alexei walked in. Flynn sharply turned his head to him, regretting it immediately as he was reminded that his neck was still badly bruised. He glared at Alexei, and then said, "Good morning."

"I believe you'll find it's afternoon."

Flynn forced himself to sit upright. He didn't like talking to Alexei while lying down. "What day is it?"

"It has been three days since your execution, and two days since you were last conscious, for a given definition of conscious considering you were out of your mind on painkillers."

Three days. His brigade would have noticed that he was missing by now. He'd left Sodia in command, and he trusted her to lead them well, but he hated thinking that they were probably worried about him. What had ever happened with the Heracles? He could think about these things later. "I slept for two days?" That would probably explain why he was ravenous.

"After your episode, you were kept sedated."

And that would explain his headache and why his mouth tasted like foot. This fact irritated him. He felt vulnerable enough in his injured and captive state without being sedated against his will.

"Now I believe you have rested enough, and it is time to put you to use." He leaned over and unlocked the cuff around Flynn's ankle. "Get up. Your uniform is in the closet. Meet me in the hallway in under ten minutes."

Flynn lay still for almost a minute after Alexei left. He wasn't keen on doing anything for Alexei, but he didn't have anywhere else to go. The only other exit from the room was through the window, but that led to a three story drop into the hellish streets below. With a sigh, he got up from bed.

He was sore in about a dozen places, but he hadn't noticed the minor aches since they were overshadowed from the major pain in his chest and neck. As he walked to the small closet door across from the bed, he briefly wondered what these injuries were from, and then remembered that he'd taken a nasty fall off his horse before getting arrested. That seemed like a lifetime ago. Oh, wait, it actually was, considering he'd started a second lifetime after Alexei executed him.

He opened the closet, and his heart dropped when he saw what was inside. He'd been expecting to find his familiar blue shirt and cape, but what met him was the dark red fabric of the Royal Guard. Was Alexei serious? He couldn't wear this. This was the uniform of his enemies. Flynn's uniform was  _blue_ , dammit!

But, it was the only clothing in the room and he doubted Alexei would be tolerant of him walking out to meet him still wearing nothing but a pair of pants. With great displeasure, he pulled the uniform on, trying not to feel like a traitor to his brigade. Where was his actual uniform? This probably wasn't a very important topic, but he had been through a lot with that uniform and didn't like to think it had just been thrown away.

At least this uniform also had a black turtleneck as the bottom layer. A small mirror on the inside of the door gave Flynn a good look at the state of this neck, and it wasn't pretty. All along the bottom of his jaw was a mess of purple and red as bruising and rope burn fought for prominence. He could still make out the shape of the rope from the indentations scarred onto his skin. He quickly pulled the collar of the turtleneck up to cover it. He didn't want to remember what it had felt like.

"Better not keep the commandant waiting," Flynn said quietly to himself, his voice filled with resentment. He was still a bit hoarse, but it was getting better. The only good thing about this uniform was that it came with a sword. It was amazing how much more confident he could feel with a sword at his hip. He couldn't use it just now – he had to wait for the opportune moment – but Flynn felt like he could accomplish anything with a sword, and already he felt like less of a prisoner.

He stepped outside, and Alexei smiled in satisfaction when he saw him. "Good. Come with me."

They walked down the hall. They passed a window and Flynn got another look at Zaphias. The idea that this was his beloved home town turned into a horrific nest of monsters and poison air filled him with grief. "What have you done to Zaphias?"

"An unfortunate side effect of the princess' power," Alexei said. "I have been using her to open the Sword Stair and it is causing the aer in the surrounding area to go out of control. It is regrettable, but it will be worth it once the empire is reborn."

"How can you say that it's worth it?" Flynn asked. "Countless people have been made to suffer due to your actions. What happened to your ideals? You used to strive for an empire where all people are treated equally with respect and justice."

"My ideals have not changed," Alexei said. "Only my methods. I was a fool to think that such a thing could be accomplished without bloodshed. A sword must pass through the fire in order to become strong."

"You cannot hope to attain justice through murder, kidnapping, and deceit." In a way, he supposed he should thank Yuri for giving him a practice run at this argument. "A just empire can only be attained through just actions. You're trying to find a quick fix for a problem that will take years of hard work in order to create fundamental social change."

They stopped at a window and Alexei gazed out at the city as if it hadn't turned into a hellish wasteland. Perhaps he could see the ideal empire he hoped to create out of this, but all Flynn saw was devastation. "You are naïve, Captain," Alexei said. "You are still young, and you are foolish. I used to think hard work and moral actions could change the empire from within, but it turns out that once the core of something has rotted, all you can do is try and cover the stench. The old order needs to be completely torn down so a new one can be instated in its place, with me at its head to guide the empire into a new tomorrow."

Flynn stood a few feet behind Alexei, not sure if Alexei was even talking to him or just vocalizing his rationalizations to himself. His eyes were glued on horizon, while Flynn slowly, silently drew his sword. This might be his only chance. The two of them were alone in this corridor, and Alexei was so caught up in his ranting of a new golden age that he wasn't even paying attention to Flynn. Alexei was wearing armour, but his neck was still exposed. One quick strike to the back of his neck, and the commandant would be dead.

Was this right? Executing a man without a trial was illegal and unethical. Flynn could kill in the thick of a fight, but stabbing someone in the back seemed… different. Without question, Alexei had done horrific things, but if Flynn killed him in cold blood, was he really any different from Yuri? How was this different from what Yuri had done to Cumore?

He didn't have a choice, though. If Alexei wasn't stopped, he would continue to hurt Estelle, and the empire as a whole. Flynn didn't have his troops to back him up and take Alexei alive to stand trial. He didn't have the luxury of saving lives  _and_  following the path of justice. If assassinating him in cold blood was the only way to protect others…

He suddenly felt a pang of understanding for Yuri. Perhaps his friend's decision to murder Ragou and Cumore had not been as simple for him as Flynn had thought. Flynn steeled himself, gripping the sword tightly in hand. He had a newfound respect for the courage Yuri must possess to follow through on the decision to murder a man.

Alexei was still staring out the window and rambling about his ideals and the perfect world he was creating and how Flynn should feel honoured to have been chosen to be a part of it. Flynn hoped he kept going, because if he kept talking out of his ass like that, he might feel less guilty about stabbing him to shut him the hell up. He raised his sword, took a step forward, and then Alexei looked down at his wrist and punched something into the blastia control panel.

Blinding pain took hold of him and Flynn gasped in surprise. His sword fell from his fingers and hit the floor with a clatter. A metal claw squeezed his chest, with pain radiating through his entire torso and shooting down his arms. He gasped for breath and fell to his knees. "W-what…?"

"You're having a heart attack," Alexei said, looking down at him calmly. "Don't worry, I won't let you die."

Flynn took deep, heaving breaths, trying to get air. Alexei waited about a minute, although it felt like much longer from Flynn's perspective, and then punched in a few more commands and Flynn's raging heart finally subsided. His muscles slumped and he panted for breath while kneeling on the floor at Alexei's feet. His heart rate hadn't returned to normal yet – it seemed to be barely beating at all now. Sweat ran down his face and he struggled to get more air to compensate for the lack of blood circulation. A residual ache still throbbed deep in his chest and even kneeling upright made him dizzy and lightheaded.

"As you can see," Alexei said, "defying me is a useless endeavour."

Flynn would respond when he was able to get enough air. He stared at the floor, the shiny surface reflecting his exhausted and pained eyes. Now he was going to have to add 'had a heart attack' to the list that already included 'got thrown from a horse', 'was hanged' and 'had heart ripped out of chest'. It would almost be comical if he didn't feel like shit.

"I shall explain to you how this is going to work. You are going to take Schwann's place as my top captain. You will follow any and all orders that I give you. As you can see, causing severe pain for you is very easy for me and can be expected if you ever disobey my orders, or act in any way that goes against my wishes. I learned my lesson with Schwann, and you can be assured that you will be kept on a very short leash. Do you understand?"

Flynn slowly nodded, already trying to work out a way to get around this. What was the distance limit on Alexei's blastia control? If Flynn could sneak away, could he remote trigger a heart attack from across the world?

"That is not how you were trained to address your commander." He pressed a button and Flynn clutched his chest again as another wave of pain washed over him and then vanished.

Flynn took a few deep breaths and croaked, "I – I understand… sir."

"Good. Should you disobey me with a serious enough infraction, I will be forced to dispose of you prematurely. If you run away, I will remotely shut down your heart."

Well, that answered that question. Even still, Flynn considered this option. As much as he wanted to live, if he had a choice between dying or helping Alexei take over the world, dying sounded like a better option.

"You should be aware that if you force me to kill you, I will need to find a replacement. Perhaps one of the members of the noble Flynn Brigade can step in and take the place of their captain. That Lieutenant Sodia seems like a good knight."

Flynn finally found the strength to raise his head and he looked to Alexei with alarm. Threatening his own life was one thing, but Flynn would not stand for Alexei threatening his knights. "Stay away from my brigade," he said as firmly as he could. Another wave of pain hit him, and Flynn gritted his teeth and rode it out.

"Do not speak back to me, or attempt to give me orders."

Flynn let out a small groan and then said, "Y-yes, sir." Damn. What were his options now? He could accept his own death – to die upholding his ideals was noble, actually. But if dying meant subjecting one of his subordinates, possibly one of his closest friends, to all the pain and misery he'd been through so far, then dying was just cowardly. He couldn't let himself die and force another to take his place, but he also couldn't let Alexei destroy the empire. No matter what he did, he would be failing someone. The best he could do was keep on living and do whatever he could to lessen the blow of Alexei's plans.

"If you lie to me, or are in any way dishonest about your intentions, I will know. Lying causes one's heart rate to spike."

He really wished Alexei hadn't told him that. He always got nervous and fidgety while lying as it was, but now he would be so self-conscious about his heart rate there was no way he'd be able to hide something from Alexei.

"You are in command of the Royal Guard in the castle while I am busy with the princess. Needless to say, they are intelligent enough to not follow any orders to evacuate the castle or interfere with me. Your number one priority is to prevent any intruders from infiltrating the castle. If anyone does get in, I will hold you personally accountable. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir." He supposed that if it was between himself and Yuri, it was better that he was the one in this position. Yuri wouldn't even consider submitting to Alexei's commands even as an act of self-preservation. Flynn briefly wondered if he was a coward for 'yes-sir-ing' a bastard like Alexei, and if Yuri would be ashamed of him for allowing Alexei to walk all over him. But what choice did he have? There was a fine line between bravery and stupidity, and what good was powerless defiance? Telling Alexei how much he hated him wasn't going to get him out of here, and giving Alexei an excuse to hurt him again wouldn't help him rescue Estelle. Flynn had his pride, and it was strong enough not to be broken so easily. He could kiss Alexei's boots all day if it got him closer to getting himself and Estelle out of here and the empire back to normal.

"I have no need for you for the rest of the afternoon. Find Lieutenant Gayle in the first floor conference room to receive food and water. You may rest in your own bedroom if you wish, but if I see you out of uniform you will be punished. Understood?"

"Yes, sir."

"Very well. I will be with the princess. Do not disturb me."

Alexei walked away, and Flynn finally got to his feet. For now, his stomach was growling so he might as well see about finding some food. He could figure out a better plan later.


	4. Orders

The conference room had been converted into a makeshift dining hall. Long tables were set up along its length, and small clumps of knights sat around chatting or eating. Everyone looked up when he entered and stared at him. Flynn was used to being stared at by knights, but usually they were his own loyal troops who were respectful and trusted him. These gazes were filled with judgment and suspicion, and he assumed quite a few of them were unhappy with him being brought in as their new commanding officer. He looked around, not sure where to sit. He hadn't felt this lost in a cafeteria since the day after Yuri left the knights and he suddenly didn't know who to sit next to at dinner.

"Hey," someone said, and he turned to see a small group walking toward him. "You Flynn Scifo?"

He was about to nod, but then remembered that nodding hurt his neck. "Yes." He was so on edge he almost added 'sir,' out of habit, but noticed their uniforms and saw that he outranked them. "Can I help you?"

"The commandant said you needed food." The leader stuck out his hand. "Lieutenant Gayle."

Flynn shook the hand hesitantly. "Why are we in here and not in the castle dining hall?"

One of the other knights scowled. "A group of Lower Quarter peasants are squatting in the kitchen, and some members of the Schwann Brigade are protecting them. We're planning on rooting them out later tonight."

Flynn dropped his hand. The news that the people of the Lower Quarter were taking refuge in the castle gave him mixed emotions. He was glad they were alive, but the fact that they'd been left behind in the city in the first place angered him. "Why? Are they harming anyone?"

"They've taken over the kitchen," Gayle said. "We need to get them out."

"I asked, are they harming anyone?" He met Gayle's gaze, staring him down with thinly-veiled anger.

Gayle lowered his eyes. "Not, uh, not as such, sir."

Flynn noted the inclusion of 'sir' for the first time in this conversation with satisfaction. "If they are not harming anyone, then leave them be."

One of the other knights said, "But sir, they-"

"Isn't the entire point of Alexei's coup to create a better empire that treats all citizens fairly? How do you intend to create a just empire by beginning with driving out poor, desperate refugees?"

"Well…" the knight looked down and shuffled his feet.

"You appear to have plenty of food and comfort in here, so leave the people in the kitchen alone. No one is to approach them or give them any grief. Spread that order around and make sure everyone in the Royal Guards is aware of it. Am I clear?"

"Yes, sir," Gayle said.

Flynn enjoyed 'yes, sir' a lot more when he was on the receiving end of it. "Now, where can I get something to eat?"

With orders given and then a bowl of food in front of him, Flynn's spirits rose somewhat. It was comforting to think that he had made a difference and protected the people of the Lower Quarter. It gave him hope that even if he was in an awful position, he could still use it to some advantage to help people. He couldn't openly defy Alexei without subjecting himself to a painful death, but he might be able to quietly arrange things in Yuri's favour.

These thoughts made him feel better as he sat alone at the end of the table, eating some sort of stew. He hadn't asked what animal those chunks of meat came from, and frankly he didn't care. He was already on his second bowl of the stuff, and he'd used a thick slice of bread to soak up the last dregs of the first bowl. It was no wonder he was hungry – this was the first time he'd eaten in this entire life.

A bowl hit the table next to him with a clatter, and someone fell into the seat beside him. "Yo," the man said.

Flynn looked up from his thoughts warily. "Can I help you?"

"You're Flynn Scifo, right?" The newcomer was a lieutenant, who gave him a cheerful smile between spoonfuls of stew.

"That's right."

"I'm Lieutenant Tanber." He slapped Flynn on the back, nearly pushing Flynn's face into his bowl. "Welcome to the Royal Guard. You're in good company now."

Flynn coughed, thankful he was just eating stew. He was sure that if Tanber had slapped him while he had anything more substantial in his throat he would have choked to death. "Ah… thank you."

"Listen, mate," Tanber leaned in a bit closer and lowered his voice, "everyone wants to know. How'd you do it?"

"Do what?"

"You know…" he glanced around conspiratorially, "survive the hanging."

"Alexei didn't tell you?"

Tanber shook his head. "The word around the brigade is that the commandant hanged you to within an inch of your life. I've heard that he was so impressed that you managed to survive a hanging, he decided to let you live. So, how'd you do it?"

He supposed it made sense that Alexei wouldn't have told everyone the exact arrangement Flynn was in, and Flynn would rather not go into the details himself, so he said, "To be honest, even I don't know. I suppose I'm just lucky. The last thing I remember is passing out at the end of the rope, and then I woke up here." That part, at least, was accurate.

Tanber whistled in amazement. "You are one lucky son of a bitch, you know that?"

"Yes, I suppose I am," Flynn said in a flat voice. If he was actually lucky, he wouldn't have gotten executed in the first place.

"I ain't never heard of no one surviving getting hanged before, I can tell you that."

Flynn took a moment to try to process the triple negative, but Tanber had already moved on to saying, "So, what was it like?"

Flynn frowned. "What was what like?"

"Hanging, of course. How often does a guy get a chance to talk to someone who's  _survived_  that?"

Flynn thought about it. Since his resurrection, he'd avoided dwelling on the last moments of his life, because they had been the most agonizing minutes – though they felt like hours – he had ever experienced. He remembered severe pain and flashes of bright light, and his legs kicking around as if he might find something to hold his weight. Someone had been screaming. He knew it hadn't been himself because he remembered struggling to get air into his lungs, making speaking impossible, much less screaming. It had probably been Estelle, and the thought that she had seen him die upset him almost more than his own death. One of the most important things was to rescue Estelle just so he could tell her he was alright.

"You ok, mate?"

He'd been staring at his bowl for a long time and pried his eyes away. "I'm sorry. I just… was thinking."

Tanber slapped him on the back again. "Hey, it's ok, you don't have to talk about it if you don't want to. I understand. Besides…" he nudged Flynn in the ribs and winked. "I wouldn't want you to have to give up your survival secret."

"I told you, I don't have a-"

"Just teasing. So, hey, where you from originally?"

"Zaphias, actually," Flynn said. "I grew up in the Lower Quarter."

"Ahhh, I see," Tanber said, nodding sagely.

"See what?"

"I heard you yelling at Gayle about the Lower Quarter folks holed up in the kitchen. That's like your family, yeah?"

Flynn nodded. "Something like that."

"Yeah, I get it. My folks are in Halure, and I'd do the same thing if they were in trouble."

"Are you aware that the reason Halure is alive and prospering today is because Lady Estellise did everything in her power to rejuvenate the tree?"

"Did she? That's amazing."

His spoon scraped the bottom of the bowl with a rough clink. "She saved your family's lives and now you're helping Alexei kidnap and torture her. How do justify that?"

Tanber shifted uncomfortably. "Well, you know, no one really  _likes_  that the girl is getting hurt. But the commandant knows what he's doing, and if he says this is necessary to save the empire, who am I to argue? I trust him unconditionally, and it's unavoidable that some people have to get hurt when you're doing something big like this."

"So I've heard," Flynn said. "But oddly enough, the people who say that sacrifices need to be made are rarely the ones being sacrificed. What in the world compels you to have such faith in Alexei?" He could understand that faith and loyalty existing up until now, since he'd possessed it himself. But once Alexei showed his true colours, surely everyone with a conscience would have turned against him?

"I've served the commandant for seven years now," Tanber said. "In all that time, he has always shown himself to be dedicated to the good of the empire. I see no reason to doubt him now."

Flynn could see the trust in Tanber's eyes. He didn't just follow Alexei's orders, he really  _believed_  in him. He truly believed that Alexei was going to save the world, and that he was honoured to be in the Royal Guard supporting him. Talking him out of this firm belief would be impossible. "If you insist."

"You'll see," Tanber said with a firm nod. "I know a lot of the captains have lost their faith in the commandant, but he'll pull through, just you wait."

"Right," Flynn said, not in the mood to argue at this point.

Tanber spent the next hour chatting about… well, everything really. By the end of the hour, Flynn knew all about Tanber's brother's family in Halure and the precise ages of his nieces and nephews, as well as where Tanber had done his early years of knight service before transferring to the Royal Guard, what his favourite cities to visit were, and which members of the brigade he got along with. Thankfully, this dump of information also included the entire story about what had happened with the Heracles, and Flynn was pleased to learn that his brigade had pulled through and saved the day. He knew he'd been right not to doubt them.

Tanber paused to take a breath, and Flynn took the chance to jump in to say, "I'm sorry, but I'm starting to get quite tired. I think I'm going to retire for the night."

"Oh!" Tanber said. "Yeah, of course, mate. Don't let me keep you up! I know you're still recovering from your near-miss with the noose and all."

Flynn stood up, but before leaving he paused, considered Tanber, and then asked, "Lieutenant… why are you being so nice to me?"

Tanber looked confused at the question. "What do you mean?"

"My men fought against yours on the Heracles only a few days ago. We should be enemies."

"Well, yeah, but you're with us now," Tanber said, like this was the most obvious thing in the world. "Besides, I don't think of the other knights as my enemies. We're all knights, you know? I just wish they could have the same faith in the commandant that I do. We shouldn't be fighting each other."

"It would be nice if that were avoidable. Goodnight, Lieutenant. And, thank you for your hospitality." He couldn't say he was happy about where he was, but it was comforting to know that at the very least he had a friendly face to talk to.

"Yeah, alright, see you tomorrow, Captain."

Flynn headed to his bedroom. The door creaked and wobbled as he opened it, and he frowned. Had it always been that loose on the hinges? And why was there a crack in the middle? He pushed these thoughts aside and stepped into his room. He could not describe the immense comfort he felt upon entering his own room. When he shut the door behind him, it felt like he was shutting Alexei out, if only for tonight.

He stripped out of the hated Royal Guard uniform the instant he could, and put on a pair of pyjama pants pulled out of the wardrobe. Before putting the shirt on, he sat down on the edge of his bed and carefully unwrapped the bandages around his chest. He needed to get a proper look at whatever Alexei had implanted in him.

Beneath the bandages was a disc of metal about the same circumference of a soft ball, with a jagged outline like rays of a sun. At the core was a red gem that glowed faintly in the dim light of his room. The skin around it was inflamed and there were stitches around the edges, holding it in place until his body healed around it. The light from the blastia glowed innocently enough, as if it hadn't been responsible for causing him horrific pain earlier today. He had a strong desire to just dig his fingers under that metal and rip it out before Alexei could use it to control him again. He couldn't, though, because his own heart wasn't even there anymore. That bastard had ripped his heart out thrown it away, and now he had to kneel at his feet and call him 'sir'. The whole situation made him so furious he wanted to throw a chair across the room.

Looking at his chest made him depressed, so he grabbed the long swath of bandage and wrapped it around his chest again. It was an awkward and painful movement, but he didn't like the idea of his shirt rubbing against raw skin. Once it was re-wrapped, Flynn got up and pulled an apple gel out of the trunk at the foot of his bed. He only had one, so he had to make this count. Gels were more effective if applied directly to the wound, but he had so many aches and pains, he didn't know which one to use the gel on. He compromised by swallowing it whole, so the healing effects would spread out evenly across his body.

He put his shirt on, but instead of going to bed he headed to his bookshelf. He was exhausted, but there was still something he needed to do. He scanned the bookshelf and then snatched a thick volume off the shelf. Alexei was doing something at the Sword Stair with Estelle. Whatever it was, Yuri was going to need to get up there when he inevitably came barging into the castle. The Sword Stair was sealed, though. Alexei had probably gotten up there by manipulating Estelle's magic, but Yuri wouldn't have that luxury. Estelle had lent him this book ages ago, but he had never gotten around to reading it. It was all about the history of the castle, so if there was any way to get the Stair open for Yuri, he'd find it in here.

He sat down at his desk and opened the book. As he reached for the lamp, he paused when his eyes met the small framed picture on the wall by the desk. It was childish, really. Yuri had completely forgotten Flynn's seventh birthday, so in a mad guilty rush he'd drawn a picture of the two of them together and then claimed that he'd been planning that all along because everybody knew that art was more valuable if you witnessed the artist draw it. Flynn had called Yuri on his bullshit even then, and warned him that he'd better get him a proper present next year. But still, Flynn hadn't let him when Yuri tried to take the drawing back and crumple it up. Flynn really had appreciated it, even if it was late and half-assed. No one had ever drawn a picture just for him before, and that made it special.

He held onto it for years, and then when he finally got his own room here in the castle, not shared with someone else in the knight barracks, he'd decided to frame it and put it on display by his desk, because as far as he was concerned, it was the most valuable piece of art he owned. After all, art was worth more if the artist drew it in your presence. Everybody knew that.

Flynn smiled softly at the memory, and then looked down at the book with a sigh. He really missed Yuri right now. Even though Yuri was stubborn, and annoying, and broke the rules, and didn't know how to contain his sarcastic commentary, and had laughed his ass off at Flynn when he learned Flynn had framed that old drawing, Flynn missed him. Yuri just had a way of putting a smile on his face no matter how crummy life was treating him.

He could really use that right now, because trying to figure out how to help Yuri fight Alexei was the only thing holding him up from the depths of despair. He  _would_  do this. He'd always said he would fix the empire from within, and now it was his job to tear down Alexei from the inside. He wasn't going to be Alexei's puppet, and he definitely wasn't going to let the hopelessness of his situation destroy his resolve.

* * *

The next few days passed slowly. The best thing he could say about them was that he rarely saw Alexei. His orders were to oversee security around the castle and direct drills with the troops. The latter was part of the former, because giving orders to troops he knew nothing about was difficult. He quickly grabbed Tanber and kept him by his side to give him pointers about how the other lieutenants worked.

"Don't put Gayle and Harper together," Tanber said. "They bicker like nobody's business and won't get nothing done. Martin is overly cautious and meticulous, so use him if you want a job done really well, but not necessarily quickly. Douglas talks big and boasts about his squad all the time, and it is annoying as all shit, but he can actually back it all up with an excellent record."

Flynn nodded along to the stream of advice, though not too vigorously because nodding hurt. He watched the squads run drills and spar, learning the fighting abilities and leadership styles of the lieutenants and some of the enlisted troops who caught his eye. He noted which ones pushed forward to achieve an objective at all costs, and which ones hung back and made sure to get as many knights through 'alive' as possible.

He had been working with his own brigade for years even before he was made their captain and knew their movements and patterns like the back of his hand. Starting over with an entirely new group of knights was a challenge, but it took his mind off of where he was. Somewhere in the castle, Alexei was doing something with Lady Estellise, but he had no power to help her right now. It was better that he stay active and put his mind to something than lie around fretting. Besides, getting to know the enemy could never be a bad thing.

The hardest part was gaining their trust. They'd worked for Alexei personally for years, and most of them were hesitant to take orders from him. His reputation as the empire's darling white knight didn't help. Tanber came in handy in this area, too, because it seemed that Tanber was already well liked throughout the Royal Guard and his support of Flynn did wonders to get the others to at least listen to him, albeit reluctantly.

After three days, Flynn had a decent enough grasp of how the brigade worked that he felt he could lead them in a basic maneuver. While he hated what Alexei was doing and had no intention of helping him accomplish his goals, he took some small satisfaction in figuring out how to use a new brigade. Devoid of outside meaning and expectations, these last few days would have even been enjoyable.

"Are you heading to bed now?" Tanber asked, following him as he left the conference room.

"Yes," Flynn said. He had always been more of an early to bed, early to rise person, and recovering from open-heart surgery hadn't done him any favours in the excess energy department.

"Hey… you alright, mate?"

"Yes, I'm fine. Why?"

Tanber shrugged. "You've seemed pretty down since you got here."

"I don't see how this should surprise you, given the circumstances."

"You mean your miraculous survival in the face of death? Yeah, gee, can't imagine why anyone would be happy about that."

Flynn glared at him, and Tanber grinned innocently. Once his smile dropped, he said, "Look… I know you don't like the commandant. I know you turned against him after he made his move for power. But you'll see – it will all work out once Commandant Alexei is in charge, and he'll put the empire in order again. Then you'll be set as one of his top captains, and life will be good."

"Sure." Yuri would willingly get a haircut before that happened.

"Hey, how's your neck feeling?"

Flynn's hand automatically went to his neck, though it was covered by his turtleneck. He'd become self-conscious about the marks, which no amount of First Aid could get rid of since they'd already set in by the time he had the strength to start trying to magically heal himself. "It's much better, thank you." It still hurt if he moved his neck too quickly, but it usually didn't bother him.

"Good to hear. See, things are better already with you not in pain anymore."

"I suppose so," he said. "Although there is still the matter of Alexei holding me here against my will."

Tanber frowned. "Well… I guess, yeah. But, the commandant brought you here because he thought you were one of the best captains in the knights. That's an honor! It's best for everyone if you're working with us…" To his credit, Tanber didn't sound like he fervently believed that.

"Lieutenant, if I were to try to run away, would you stop me?"

"I…" He stared at Flynn, his face torn up in conflict. "Captain, please don't ask me to side between you and the commandant. I'd have to side with the commandant, and then I'd feel terrible about it."

"Don't worry. I don't actually have any plans to flee. There's still a hoard of angry monsters outside the castle gates and I'm not at the top of my game yet. Going out there alone would just get me killed."

Tanber nodded quickly. "Right. So, you should stay here."

"I appreciate your support, Lieutenant, I truly do." Tanber's friendliness made all the crap Alexei was putting him through more bearable. "But, I have my own brigade I need to return to. You understand, don't you?"

Tanber frowned. "I know… but you can't get to them right now, yeah? So, can't you work with us for the time being?"

"I suppose I have no other choice."

"And, hey," Tanber put on a grin, "maybe if we're lucky, you'll have a chance to order Gayle into a den of wolves, for the good of the empire, of course."

Flynn chuckled at the thought, but said, "We shouldn't joke about that. He's a comrade." He may be against Alexei, but ordering a knight into a situation with the intent of him dying was too barbaric for Flynn to even consider.

"Yes, but a spectacularly dickish one."

"Neverthelesss…"

Tanber shoved Flynn's shoulder. "You're no fun."

The shove jostled his chest, sending a small shot of pain radiating out from the still-healing wound around the blastia. Tanber noticed his wince and said, "Hey, sorry, you alright, mate?"

"I'm fine," Flynn said.

"I get the feeling you got more wrong with you than just your neck."

"It's nothing." He didn't want to hear Tanber's justifications for Alexei if he found out what Alexei had done to his heart.

Tanber clearly didn't believe him, but didn't push the issue. "Alright…"

"We've reached my room." He stopped outside the door. "Goodnight, Lieutenant."

"Yeah, goodnight." He started walking away and added, "Hope whatever it is you're hiding from me feels better tomorrow!"

Flynn sighed, and retired to his room.

* * *

The lights turned on abruptly and someone said, "Hey. Get up."

Flynn's eyes flashed open. When he glanced at the door, he saw Lieutenant Gayle standing in the doorway with his arms crossed. Flynn hadn't been awakened this rudely since he lived with Yuri, and he glared at Gayle, saying, "Excuse me?"

Gayle visible struggled to keep from rolling his eyes. "Sorry. Get up,  _sir_. The commandant wants to see you. He's in his office."

Flynn considered reprimanding him for his discourteous tone, but quite frankly he just didn't care. He didn't want to be in command of the Royal Guard and, with the exception of Tanber and a few of his friends, the Royal Guard didn't want him in command of them. Flynn took pride in operating a friendly, respectful relationship between himself and his brigade, and while he never would have allowed one of his own soldiers to speak to him that way, he knew that none of them would.

Gayle left, and Flynn crawled out of bed. He picked up his uniform from the chair where he'd left it last night. Even after wearing it for a few days, he still hated it. As with every morning, he briefly considered putting on the civilian clothes in his closet in defiance, but he didn't relish the idea of another heart attack. It wasn't worth the pointless defiance. He put the red uniform on and headed to the commandant's office.

When he knocked on the door, Alexei said, "Enter."

Flynn strode into the office, trying to pretend this was just like any other meeting with his commanding officer. He stood at attention before Alexei's desk and said, "You wanted to see me, sir?" Luckily, he was so practiced at military correctness that he could easily slip into it without conscious thought. This was good because putting conscious thought into calling Alexei 'sir' pissed him off.

"Ah, yes, Captain Flynn. You seem to be transitioning well into your new position."

What he wanted to say was,  _I'm out of here the moment I can get away and I will never willingly serve you as long as I live._ What he actually said was, "Sir." It was a good, neutral word.

"We will be leaving Zaphias today. My work at the Sword Stair will be completed by this evening. There is a ship off the coast waiting to take us to our next destination."

"Where might that be, sir?"

"I'm afraid that is… confidential for now." Alexei steeped his fingers on the desk. "You are to oversee the movement of sixty percent of our troops to the ship. It doesn't matter which sixty percent you choose to transfer."

Flynn frowned. "Sir, what about the remaining forty percent?"

"They are to remain at the castle and patrol for intruders while I finish the final steps atop the Sword Stair."

"Why don't we have everyone remain together and move out as one?"

"Because I am expecting a counter-attack from either your overzealous former brigade or that band of fools that are friends with the princess."

"You plan to evacuate the remaining troops with yourself when your project is completed?"

"That will not be possible," Alexei said. "I will be using magic to leave immediately and rejoin the rest of you on the ship."

"But what of the men you're leaving behind?"

"I will return for the survivors once our trip to the ocean is complete and the empire has fallen."

Flynn's fists clenched. "You are abandoning your own men? Forty percent of your forces is not enough to hold the castle against my brigade. They'll all be killed, or at the very least taken prisoner!" Flynn had no love for the Royal Guard, but the fact that Alexei had put them under his command meant they were his responsibility. Alexei was a monster, but the knights who served him were just soldiers doing their jobs. That Alexei would even consider abandoning the troops that so loyally stuck by his side was disgusting. "You cannot leave your own men behind to die!"

Alexei raised an eyebrow, and then reached for his wrist. As soon as Flynn saw the movement, he knew what was coming and realized he'd said too much. He braced himself, and then leaned forward with a gasp as throbbing pain squeezed his chest. It wasn't as severe as the heart attack he'd endured after his assassination attempt, but it still left him clutching his chest and gasping for breath.

"Remember your place, Captain," Alexei said icily. "If I am looking for your strategic advice, I will ask for it."

"Y-yes, sir," Flynn said as the pain ebbed away.

"Here is a list of lieutenants," Alexei said, handing him a sheet of paper. "It matters little to me which ones remain and which ones leave, so choose at your discretion. I want you and those leaving out of here no later than three."

"Yes, sir."

Alexei scrutinized him, and then added, "I shouldn't have to remind you that if you attempt to leave the guards and rejoin your friends, I can remotely shut down your heart."

Flynn met his gaze. His mouth said, "Yes, sir," but his eyes said,  _I hate you._

Alexei smiled at him. He clearly understood both messages, and found the silent one amusing. "You have five hours. Get to work. I will see you again at sea."

"Yes, sir!" Flynn saluted sharply, and then marched out of the office. Once the door closed, he dropped his professional posture and let a furious scowl settle on his face. There were twenty lieutenants listed, and he was expected to pick eight of them to abandon? At this point he couldn't tell if Alexei was just a callous bastard or took sadistic pleasure in making him do these things.

He would think about it over breakfast. In the conference room, he grabbed a sandwich and sat down alone to eat. He hated how everyone stared at him all the time. He understood their confusion at his position, though. Was he their prisoner or their commander, or maybe a little bit of both? It was weird and he didn't like it here. He missed his own brigade, he missed his friends, he missed actually enjoying the orders he was given, and he especially missed having a heart.

As he ate, he looked down at the list and matched names to faces. After the past three days, he felt he had a firm enough understanding of each person to work out who to take and who to leave. There were obviously much more knowledgeable people who were probably more qualified to pick, but Alexei had given this task to him. Tanber was the only person he would feel comfortable discussing this with, but he wasn't here.

He was sorely tempted to leave Gayle behind, but that was petty. Gayle seemed to have the biggest grudge against the Lower Quarter people, and Flynn worried what might happen if he left and wasn't here to keep Gayle from driving them out. He would have to choose the lieutenants he thought would be most likely to leave the Lower Quarter folk alone. Unfortunately, that included the ones Flynn would typically describe as being close to 'good people'. They would be the ones he'd rather have around him, and the ones he least wanted to abandon and possibly condemn to death. Ones like Tanber. He couldn't think like that, though. He had to do what was best for the people, and what was best was leaving behind the handful of kind-hearted lieutenants that truly wanted to help all the people of the empire, and just had the misfortune of putting their faith in Alexei.

He saw Tanber's name on the list and sighed. He needed someone he could talk to in order to stay sane, and he needed Tanber to help him deal with the rest of the lieutenants. Perhaps it was motivated by selfishness, but he justified it by saying that the rest of the knights would be more likely to follow him with Tanber around, and put him on the list of knights leaving the castle. There were other lieutenants that he would also like to have around, but he was stretching it enough by bringing Tanber. They'd have to stay behind to take care of the Lower Quarter.

This wasn't a death sentence, he reminded himself. When his brigade retook the castle, they would avoid killing the knights. He would tell the lieutenants that if they came under attack, they should surrender rather than fight back. Hm… he could also tell them that Yuri Lowell knew of a secret entrance to the castle in the west wing and to concentrate their security over there, when in actuality Yuri probably had no reason to go to the west wing of the castle.

That just left the matter of the angel statues. After all his reading from Estelle's book, he'd worked out that to unlock the Sword Stair, four angel statues needed to be hit with a burst of aer in the precise order. Yuri was going to need to get up the Stair to get to Estelle, so the least Flynn could do for him was unlock all the angels. He could do that once he directed all the lieutenants on their orders to either stay or leave and got the evacuation procedure under way. When everyone was running around and getting things together, he'd slip away and unlock those status for Yuri. He could cast First Aid, which should be enough aer to trigger the statues.

Even if he did have to leave the castle before Yuri got here, he could hope that perhaps Yuri would manage to kill Alexei at the top of the Sword Stair and put an end to this nightmare.


	5. Loss

This was going to work. It  _had_  to work. Yuri wasn't going to let Estelle slip through their fingers once again. Estelle hovered a few feet off the ground, surrounded by an angry, reddish field of aer. Her face contorted in pain, and Yuri gripped the hilt of Dein Nomos tightly. He was so pissed off at Alexei for putting her through this, but that bastard had run off, leaving them to deal with Estelle's raging aer. Light glowed under everybody's feet as they all worked together to control the flow of aer. They surrounded Estelle, everyone's faces tight with concern and determination.

"Yuri, the sword!" Rita said from behind him.

Yuri nodded tightly and raised the blade. "Here!" He didn't know exactly what Rita was doing, but by this point he'd learned that when aer and blastia were the problem, it was best to sit back and let their genius mage do the trick.

Blue light sprung up around him, and he lifted the sword in the air. Energy rattled through it, and he had to use both hands to stabilize it. Yuri gritted his teeth and squinted against the bright light quickly taking over the platform they were on. He didn't know what was happening, but assumed that if it was going wrong, Rita would say something.

_Come on, Estelle…_

The light became too bright even to squint, flashing to pure white. Yuri closed his eyes and turned his face away, and then the shaking of the sword stopped and energy flooded out. He managed to open his eyes enough to see a burst of white-blue light radiate out of Estelle and flood across the city. More importantly, the red sphere of aer that had surrounded Estelle faded away, and her expression softened.

She still hovered in the air, and then Yuri dropped the sword just in time for her to start falling toward him. Yuri held up his arms, and Estelle dropped down into an embrace, pushing him over backward. He fell heavily to the ground, but with Estelle's head rested against his chest, a smile on her face, he found he didn't care.

"Alright!" Karol shouted, jumping in the air.

"Estelle!" Rita shouted, running forward. "Estelle, are you ok?"

"Is she hurt?" Judith asked.

"Whoa, everyone calm down a bit," Yuri said, squirming a bit to sit up properly. "Give her some space." Estelle clung tightly to Yuri's waist in the most bone-crushing hug Yuri had ever endured. He looked down at her with a smile. "Welcome back."

Estelle let out a huge sigh. "…Nice to be back."

Yuri raised one hand to wrap around her shoulders. Alexei had gotten away. There was that shrine of Zaude thing that had appeared in the ocean. They still had a lot to worry about and the battle wasn't over yet, but just for tonight, he'd let himself celebrate a small victory. The sky over Zaphias was still orange, but it was the smooth orange gradient of sunset and not the foggy miasma of out of control aer.

"Sodia has probably retaken the castle by now," Judith said, looking back at the way they'd come.

Yuri nodded. Sodia and the Flynn Brigade had been right behind them on their way into the castle, focusing on taking out the Royal Guard and retaking Zaphias while Yuri's group made a beeline for Alexei and Estelle. It had actually been a pretty quick trip through the castle. The door to the Sword Stair had already been unlocked, even though the engraving on the wall had said some gibberish about angels and the Child of the Full Moon. Yuri could only assume that Alexei had forgotten to close it again after he headed up. Additionally, there had been hardly any troops to stand in their way. He didn't know where all of Alexei's guard had gone, but they certainly hadn't been in their way.

"You're right," Yuri said. "We should head downstairs and figure out what we're going to do next."

He started to get up, but then Estelle's grip tightened around him. She gasped. "Yuri! I – I need to tell you!"

Yuri looked down at her in alarm. Her happy, peaceful expression had suddenly disappeared, replaced with wide, grief-stricken eyes. "Estelle? What's wrong?"

"I-it's… Flynn. Flynn is…"

There it was again, that elusive 'Flynn is-'. Yuri had pushed it from his mind while infiltrating Zaphias, but now his worrying came back and hit him with full force. He wasn't comforted by the way tears sprung up in Estelle's eyes. "Estelle, what is it?"

"Y-Yuri, Flynn is… Flynn is dead."

Yuri didn't move. His blood turned to ice. He was suddenly the centre of attention as all his friends looked to him in shock, seeing how he would react to this news. "H-hey, don't be like that," Yuri said, trying to sound casual. "Yeah, we don't know where he is right now, but Flynn is pretty tough. I'm sure he'll turn up."

Estelle shook her head and pressed her face tighter against Yuri's chest. "No, Yuri, I – I saw it happen. Alexei captured him and then he… he executed him. I saw Flynn die, Yuri."

A long minute passed. Yuri spent at least half of it in numbed shock as Estelle's words sunk into his chest. It might have been less painful, and left him feeling more whole, if Alexei had ripped off his arm instead. How could Flynn just be  _gone_? They'd always been together. Even after he left the knights and they barely saw each other anymore, he still knew that no matter what he did, Flynn would always be there to back him up for when he really needed it. He'd never felt like he needed to visit Flynn all the time, because Flynn would always just be  _there_. And now suddenly, he wasn't. The idea of a world where Flynn wasn't a reliable rock that would always be there when he needed him felt foreign and frightening.

"Yuri…?" Karol said quietly.

He realized he'd been staring into space for a long time. The rest of his friends were silent, wearing matching grim expressions. None of them had ever really met Flynn beyond being in the same general vicinity when he and Yuri were talking, so none of them could honestly feel any true grief at his passing. They were still stricken with sadness, though, out of empathy for Yuri and Estelle. Even Rita looked upset.

Yuri took a deep breath. There was no point sitting around and getting teary-eyed. The world was still in danger, and Alexei still needed to get beaten to a bloody pulp –  _especially_  now that Yuri knew what he'd done to Flynn. Yuri jerkily got to his feet, helping Estelle up with him. "Let's go find Sodia and Ioder," he said, his voice sounding hollow even to him. The world felt very far away. "We should discuss what we're going to do about Zaude."

Judith rested her hand on his shoulder. "Are you alright?"

"No, because Alexei is still at large and we have to stop him. Everyone needs to stop moping around and let's get this taken care of."

It took about an hour to get everything taken care of. They found Sodia easily, and sure enough, her troops had successfully retaken the capital. According to Sodia, it appeared that less than half of Alexei's knights were still in the castle when they arrived, and they had surrendered without much of a fight. The castle prisons were now overflowing with knights charged with treason, and nobody really knew what to do with them at the moment.

Shortly after the aer cleared up, Ioder arrived in the city and began ordering anyone who could spare their time to help with the cleanup. Dead plants and monster carcasses littered the streets, and the people of the Lower Quarter were recruited to help clean it all up. Yuri hoped Ioder had understand the venomous glare he'd given him, implying that if the Lower Quarter folk weren't rewarded handsomely for their effort, he and Ioder were going to have  _words_. Very angry and possibly violent ones.

With all of that taken care of, there was finally time to sit down in Ioder's office and explain what had happened. Yuri, Estelle, and Raven met with Sodia and Ioder, while the rest of their group scattered around the castle to take care of some things of their own. Ioder nodded along solemnly as Yuri explained what had happened with Alexei and the Enduring Shrine of Zaude.

"Either of you know what the shrine even is?" Yuri asked, looking between Sodia and Ioder.

They both shook their heads. "No," Ioder said. "But if Alexei needs it for his plans, it can't be good."

"We should send the knights to Zaude," Sodia said. "He needs to be stopped."

"I'm with you on that one," Yuri said. "We'll be going, too."

Sodia stiffened. "You civilians have done enough. This is a matter best left to the knights. I'm certain that once Captain Flynn shows up, he will agree with me."

A deadly silence fell over the room. Something throbbed painfully in Yuri's chest. Raven glanced nervously at Yuri. Estelle clenched her hands and looked down at her lap.

Ioder saw their reactions and frowned. "Do you… know something about Captain Flynn?"

Yuri swallowed heavily. "Flynn's dead."

There was a long pause, and then, "No." Sodia's whole face fell. Yuri didn't think he'd ever seen her show so much emotion. "He can't be. Captain Flynn is the strongest knight in the army. He wouldn't fall so easily!"

"Alexei killed him," Estelle said softly, speaking to her knees. "Alexei wanted Flynn to join him, but Flynn refused, so… he killed him."

Another long pause. Ioder said, "I see."

Sodia was silent, staring at a whirl of wood on the table as if it would miraculously tell her better news.

"With or without Flynn," Raven said, "Alexei needs ta be stopped. We're going ta Zaude, right, Yuri?"

"Yeah," Yuri said. "Alexei owes the world for what he's done. He owes  _us_."

"I would be uncomfortable with just you going," Ioder said. "Please don't take offence, but this is too great a disaster to leave in the hands of so few people."

"Figured you'd say that," Yuri said.

"There's also some… administrative business to take care of," Ioder said, folding his hands on the table. "With Alexei turned against us, we are in need of a new commandant. I had planned on promoting Flynn, but…." Everyone in the room glanced down at their hands. Ioder didn't need to finish that 'but.' He sighed. "I will have to promote one of the other captains. Unfortunately, they are currently scattered across the empire taking care of their own regions right now. Additionally, after Alexei's deception I am hesitant to trust any of them without concrete proof that they are on our side. I can only think of one captain in the vicinity that I know I can trust."

The room was silent, and then one by one, all eyes slowly drifted to Raven. Raven appeared to be the last person to figure out what Ioder was implying.

"What're you all looking at me –  _oh_." He waved his hands in front of his chest. "Oh, no. Don't even think about it."

"Please, Captain Schwann," Ioder said. "You're the only option at the moment."

"First of all, there's no 'Captain Schwann' here. He's just as dead as Captain Flynn. I'm Raven. Raven is a guildsman, and guildsmen aren't in the Knights!"

"The knighthood is in shambles," Ioder said. "It's lost its head, but we need strong leadership more than ever. As soon as the crisis is over, an appropriate successor to Alexei can be chosen, but  _right now_  we need someone to step in and take control."

"Ioder has a point, Raven," Estelle said, finally looking up from her knees. Her eyes shimmered with tears. "There's no one else who can take Flynn's place right now."

"Ah, c'mon, don't give me that look." Raven shifted uncomfortably, looking away from Estelle's pleading face.

"She's right, Old Man," Yuri said. "The knights aren't going to be much use if they're running around like a chicken without a head."

"Argh," Raven said, burying his face in his hands. "Why do I let myself get talk inta these things? Alright, alright, I'll do it." Ioder smiled, but before he could say anything, Raven raised his head and held up his hand, "But I got some conditions. Firstly, if you have ta call me anythin', it's Commandant  _Raven_ , ya got that? Second, I'm not gonna wear any fancy armour. The clothes I have now are just fine, thanks. Third, and most importantly, the second you have a more qualified captain show up, I'm outta here. Got it?"

Ioder nodded. "That is acceptable. I promise to promote a suitable replacement the moment I can. In the meantime, Lieutenant Sodia," he turned to her, and Sodia immediately sat up straight upon being addressed. "I'd like to promote you to captain. Your brigade needs a leader, and you have already shown yourself to do a fine job running it in Flynn's absence."

"Thank you, sir," Sodia said. "This is an honour."

"Well, if we've got all that taken care of, I think I'm heading out," Yuri said. "We should all get some rest before tomorrow."

"I hear ya," Raven said, folding his hands behind his head and leaning back. "After all the excitement today, I am pooped."

Sodia stood up. "Commandant Raven, we should discuss our strategy for tomorrow's infiltration of Zaude."

Raven sighed and hung his head. "Yeah, yeah, alright. Man, I knew I was gonna regret takin' this job." He got up and kicked his chair under the table. "Guess I'd better get to work. See you kids tomorrow." He rolled his eyes at Yuri as he followed Sodia out the door. Yuri didn't envy him having to spend the evening with Sodia.

"Yuri," Estelle said, catching his arm, "um… Rita asked me to come see her to work out some things with aer. But… I want to talk to you. Will you wait for me down at the garden and I'll meet you there once I see Rita?"

Yuri nodded. "Yeah, sure, Estelle."

She gave him a tight smile, and then hurried off. After she was gone, Yuri started making his way to the garden. As he went, he remembered that he didn't actually know his way around the castle that well. As such, he ended up taking a wrong turn, or possibly several wrong turns, until he was so turned around he didn't even know how to get back to Ioder's office.

 _Dammit_ , Yuri thought, looking around the hallway in confusion.  _Where the hell am I?!_  All these stupid corridors all looked the same, how was anyone supposed to navigate in here? His expression reflected in the overly shiny floor, and was almost surprised to see how furious his face was. Well, no wonder he was furious! He was lost in a stupid building! What was the point of a castle this size? Knowing he'd get lost must have been why he had never visited Flynn when he had the chance. Dammit, he didn't want to think about Flynn! He needed to focus on finding the garden.

He turned around another corner, and found another corridor exactly the same as the last. Why, dammit?! Why couldn't they put some damn signposts in here? Anger boiled up inside him. This stupid castle! If Flynn hadn't gone to live in this dumb castle maybe he would have visited Flynn more often like he should have. Then he wouldn't have to feel guilty about ignoring his best friend for the past few years, or think about the fact that he had missed his chance to ever hang out with him again. No, dammit, shut up, he didn't want to think about Flynn.

He clenched his hand, and before he could think his next action through, he slammed his fist into the wall, letting all his anger and frustration flow out of it. He heard something snap, and it hadn't been the wall. He left his fist where it was for a few seconds, his shoulders heaving as he panted in frustration. In that moment, he had actually felt better.

Then that moment ended, and Yuri pulled his hand away with a grimace. That had been really dumb. He was still lost, Flynn was still dead, and now his knuckles were broken. He gingerly cradled that hand with his other, looking forward to finding Estelle now more than ever.

"Uh, hey," someone said, and Yuri turned to see one of Flynn's knights walking toward him. Sodia's knights now, actually, Yuri thought. "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine," he grumbled, hold his injured hand close to his chest. "Hey, do you know how to get to the garden from here?"

The knight nodded. "If you go down this hallway and turn right, there's a flight of stairs. Go down that and take the next two lefts. The garden will be right ahead after that."

Yuri nodded. "Alright, thanks."

He was about to walk away, but the knight hesitated. "You… you're Yuri Lowell, correct?"

"What's it to you?" If this knight was going to pull a Sodia and start trying to arrest him the moment they made eye contact, he might have to start punching things other than the wall, such as his face.

"You would know. There's… word is spreading through the brigade, but most of us are having trouble believing it. Is… is Captain Flynn really…?"

Yuri stared at the knight, clearly reading the pain in his eyes.  _Please say I'm wrong_ , those eyes said. Yuri sighed heavily, wishing he didn't have to break the man's heart. He tried not to let his voice dip too low or too raw as he said, "Yeah. He's gone."

"I… I see." The knight hung his head, and it struck Yuri just how much Flynn's knights clearly cared about him. Flynn's passing would be felt keenly by a huge number of people.

Yuri wasn't about to stand around and start a sob-fest over Flynn, so he took off down the hall, determined not to get lost on the way to the garden this time. He found it a bit under ten minutes later, and was a bit surprised to find Judith there as well.

She stood the middle, looking up at the sky, but turned her head to him when she heard him approach. "Good evening, Yuri."

"Hey." He walked over to her and glanced up at the sky, searching for what she was looking at. "What are you doing out here?"

She looked back up at the sky. "Trying to talk to Phaeroh. If Zaude is connected to the ancient catastrophe, Phaeroh might know something about it." Her eyes drifted down to Yuri's hands. "What happened? Your knuckles are bleeding."

"It's nothing," Yuri said, shifting his other hand to cover it.

"It doesn't look like nothing." She reached out and grabbed his wrist, pulling his hand out to inspect it. She frowned. "What in the world did you do? Estelle healed all our injuries after the fighting at the Sword Stair."

"It's nothing, ok? I just… got in a fight with a wall."

"Looks like the wall won."

Yuri pulled his hand back. "It had reinforcements. Concrete ones. Are you sure you should tell Phaeroh about Zaude? Isn't he going to ask about Estelle?" Talking about his broken hand was not high on his list of preferred activities, so he tried to direct the conversation away from that.

"Don't worry. I'm going to tell him it looks like everything with Estelle will be ok."

"Alright, thanks."

"I'm saying that because I really do believe that it will be. But, Yuri, are  _you_  ok?"

"What? 'Course I am. You know I've had worse than some broken knuckles."

Judith raised an eyebrow at him, a look that Yuri had learned to interpret as 'seriously, Yuri?' "That isn't what I'm talking about."

Yuri glared at her. "I'm alright about that, too."

"The wall might disagree with you. You know, I was only half teasing the other day when I said that keeping your feelings bottled up isn't very good for the guild. We're a team, and if one of us is hurting, it drags us all down."

Yuri sighed in frustration. He wasn't going to get out of this, was he? "It isn't something you can help with. I just… I miss him, and it's hard to believe that I'm not going to see him again."

"That's understandable. Flynn seemed to be a very good person."

Yuri nodded. "Yeah. He really was. It's a shame you never got to know him – I think you would have liked him." Yuri smiled a bit and glanced up at the stars. "He always liked to pretend he was so different from me, so much more mature and responsible when it came to fighting, but the truth is, he  _loved_  fighting." He had to pause for a second to bring his thoughts back together after realizing he was talking about Flynn in the past tense. "Nothing got him quite as fired up as a good battle. We used to spar all the time as kids, with sticks and stuff, and we always got so into it we ended up with scuffs and cuts and ripped clothes. We'd stand there all roughed up, grinning like crazy, as the innkeeper who sometimes took care of us shouted at us and scolded us to be more careful next time. But even though I always played just as rough as he did, whenever I got hurt he stopped everything to make sure I was alright and then apologized for tripping me or hitting too hard."

"He sounds really wonderful."

"I'm going to murder Alexei." He had been intent on making that bastard bleed ever since Estelle went missing, but after this… his friends were going to have to hold him back if they wanted a body in one piece enough to bury.

"All of us want to take him down. After everything he's done, I cannot let Alexei go on. We're in this together."

Yuri pulled his eyes away from the sky. "Yeah. I know." He sighed, rubbing his sore hand. "Man, things sure have gotten complicated. It doesn't seem like that long ago I was just trying to get the aque blastia for the Lower Quarter back."

"I feel the same way. Before this, the only real goal I've had in my entire life was to destroy the Hermes blastia. In a way, it was easier. I didn't have to think about other things."

"Other things?"

She shrugged. "Oh… this world, me, lots of things. Had I never met Estelle, I might still be flying around with Ba'ul, not thinking of anything."

"Phaeroh said you'd changed, too."

"Hm…" Judith frowned. "I haven't completely changed my goals. I will not ignore the blastia or the aer problem."

"And Estelle?"

"I will not kill Estelle, nor will I let her be killed. I firmly believe that she is not a threat to the world."

Yuri nodded. "I won't let her die either. I'm not letting any more of my friends get killed."

"Well, with all of us working so hard to protect her, I'm sure she'll be safe." Judith rested her hand on Yuri's shoulder. "I think I'm heading in now. Don't stay out too late."

"I'm just waiting for Estelle. Judy… let's win this one."

Judith nodded with a small smile. "Right. We'll win this one for Flynn."

"Yeah. For Flynn."

She gave his shoulder a tight squeeze, and then left the garden. Once she left, Yuri wandered over to take a seat on the stone edge of a planter. He waited for Estelle, massaging his hand. He'd hoped that concentrating on the pain in his hand would distract him from the pain of losing Flynn, but that was like hoping a paper cut would distract from a knife in the gut.

After about ten minutes, Estelle finally appeared. "I'm sorry I'm late, Yuri," she said. "Rita was really into her work and I didn't want to make her pause."

"It's alright," Yuri said. "I'm not doing anything tonight. So… you wanted to talk?"

"I… yes. I just – oh! Yuri, your hand!" She sat down next to him and leaned over, grabbing his wrist. "Yuri, what happened?!"

"Ah… I just punched the wall."

Estelle frowned, her eyebrows knit in confusion. "The wall? Why would you punch the wall?"

"Because I wanted to!"

Estelle gave him a worried look, and Yuri felt bad for snapping at her. Light flashed and his hand put itself back together. She asked, "Were you trying to take out your anger about Flynn?"

Yuri looked down at his hand as he flexed it. He wiggled his fingers and made a fist a few times. Good as new, just like Estelle's work always was. "…Yeah."

"Did it help?"

Yuri shrugged. "For a few seconds."

Estelle leaned against his side. "Even a few seconds sounds good."

"Yeah. I know."

"You know, he was the first real friend I ever had. I used to talk to him about my books all the time. I know he was never really that interested in them, but he always listened in earnest. I felt like he was the first person to ever really  _listen_  to me, and care about what I had to say."

"Heh. Flynn cared about everybody." Yuri leaned forward and fixed his gaze on the pond ahead of him. "Estelle… how did he die?"

"Oh. Um… he was hanged." Estelle sat upright and followed Yuri's gaze. With her eyes fixed on the pond, she said, "Alexei asked him if he would join the Royal Guard and serve him, but Flynn said no. Even when he knew Alexei would hang him if he said no, he still wouldn't give in. He said, 'if you plan to kill me, then so be it. I will die with my honour intact.'"

Yuri nodded. "Yeah, that sounds like Flynn alright. He was always a noble idiot."

"He never begged for his life, or anything like that. He was so brave, Yuri. I think he was more angry than afraid. Um, Alexei asked him if he had any last words, and I thought he might say something for me to pass on to you, but he didn't." She glanced at him worriedly. "I'm sorry."

Yuri shook his head. "Nah. There was nothing to say. Nothing that I don't already know." He glanced over at her and asked, "Did he say anything at all?"

"He just complained that it was illegal to execute him without a trial, and that Alexei would never be a just ruler."

Yuri tried to laugh, but it came out hollow and forced, so he quickly gave up. "I can imagine."

"After that, the knight pulled the lever and…" He skirt bunched up in her clenched fists. "He hung there for about ten minutes before the knights pulled him down."

Yuri looked sharply at her. "Ten minutes?" That couldn't be right. He'd witnessed a couple of knight executions in his time, and the criminals always died almost instantly when they dropped. The knighthood had it down to a science based on the convict's height and weight to make sure the neck snapped immediately. "The drop should have snapped his neck right away."

Estelle shook her head. "They didn't drop him very far. His neck didn't break, he just… strangled."

Yuri's fists clenched as a new hatred for Alexei surged through him. That absolute  _bastard_. He'd gone out of his way to prolong Flynn's death. When he saw Alexei again, he might forgo the sword so he could have the satisfaction of slowly punching the life out of him with his bare hands.

"I don't think Flynn suffered for very long," Estelle said quickly. "He struggled at first, but he went limp after about two minutes. I think – I think he blacked out. And – and then his body just hung there for a while until he was finally dead."

Yuri looked down at Estelle. Her face was pale and her eyes glassy with tears. She stared forward, not seeing the beautiful garden around her because her mind was stuck reliving a much more horrific scene. Yuri reached out and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her close again. "Estelle… I'm sorry. I shouldn't have made you relive that."

All Estelle could do was nod, and then wrapped her arms tightly around Yuri's chest as she was overcome with sobs. Yuri rubbed her shoulders, hoping that was good enough. Yuri had never been very comfortable around crying people. When they were little, Flynn used to be the type to cry whenever he got a scraped knee or broke a toy. As he sat there crying, Yuri used to awkwardly sit next to him, patting his shoulder every now and then. It was strange to think that that little crying boy had grown up into the man who could face his own death with such dignity.

They sat like that for a while. Estelle cried, while Yuri sat silently, his mind lost in thought. His head was busy putting together a montage of Flynn. Every memory he had of the guy flashed through his head, usually accompanied by a gut-punching 'you should have apologized for that' or 'why didn't you appreciate that more?' Undercutting all of it was the thought,  _you are never going to see him again because he spent two minutes in agony slowly strangling to death thanks to the horrible bastard who nearly forced you to kill Estelle_. He almost couldn't decide if his hatred for Alexei or grief over Flynn was more powerful.

After a while, Estelle had cried herself out and was able to sit up somewhat, releasing Yuri from her crushing grip. Yuri's mind was still stuck on Flynn, and the thoughts of all the things they were never going to do together again.

Estelle glanced at his face, and then reached out and gently took his hand.

Yuri looked down at her concerned expression, and then pulled his hand away to reach up and vigorously rub his eyes. "I think we should head in. Something in this garden is making my eyes itch."

Estelle frowned. "Yuri…"

Yuri sniffled a bit and rapidly blinked his eyes to dispel the built up tears. "Ugh, I don't usually have allergies like this." He rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand. "The castle must have some fancy foreign plant that's spewing pollen all over the place."

Estelle leaned over, wrapping her arms around his bicep and resting her head on his shoulder. "Yes," she said softly. "That must be it."


	6. Lying

The Enduring Shrine of Zaude was a big place, and most of it was underwater. It was also packed with monsters, so when they arrived, the first thing they had to do was send the knights in to secure a section of the shrine for their own use. Flynn found this relaxing, actually. When it came to directing troops against hoards of monsters, he could forget about the fact that he was doing it for Alexei and throw himself into the fighting.

He wished fighting monsters could last forever, but it didn't seem like very long before one of the lieutenants came up to him and said, "Sir, the monsters are under control. We have secured a perimeter around the centre for Commandant Alexei to work."

"Good work," Flynn said. It satisfied him to hear that the 'sir' wasn't delivered with resentment. After hours of directing troops and joining the fray whenever it came to him, he had at least earned a modicum of respect.

"Also, sir, Commandant Alexei is waiting to meet with you in the heart of the shrine."

An involuntary shiver ran through him. He hadn't spoken to Alexei since the meeting in his office yesterday. He'd gone to sleep on the ship on their way to Zaude, and then as soon as they arrived he got caught up in clearing the shrine of monsters. He hid his trepidation from the knight. "I see. Thank you."

The knight saluted and left Flynn alone. Flynn glanced to the corridor that led to the centre of the shrine, took a deep breath, and made his way to Alexei. There was no point putting this off. He strode down the long stone corridor, trying not to feel small next to the imposing pillars that arched over his head. At the end of the hall was an engraved door carved from stone, and after passing through that he reached the heart of the shrine. Alexei stood on a huge square platform in the middle of a pool of water, with massive walls of water cascading down from above surrounding the pool. Flynn strode down the long stone path that led to the centre square, and then stood at attention before Alexei.

"You wanted to see me, sir?"

"Ah, Captain," Alexei said, looking up at him. "I hear you have cleared the area of monsters. Lieutenant Tanber tells me that without your influence, many more of the Royal Guard would have been killed in the fighting."

"Sir." Flynn wondered if he had done the right thing. Alexei was the bad guy, and his knights were the enemy. And yet, he'd done what he could to get as many of them through the fighting alive as possible. When soldiers were under his command, the idea of not doing everything in his power to get them through alive seemed criminal.

"That is fortunate for you," Alexei said, "because since you have proven yourself useful, I have decided to forgive your betrayal yesterday."

Flynn's heart skipped a beat. "Sir?"

"I told you that I would hold you personally accountable for castle security. And yet, your little friends managed to make it to the top of the Sword Stair. I also heard that prior to leaving, you ordered the remaining knights to concentrate their efforts on the west wing, and then you disappeared for a little while. Tell me, what were you doing?"

Flynn took a breath, trying to calm down. He reminded himself that Alexei could tell when he was lying if his heart started beating too fast, although that reminder did very little to calm his nerves. Alexei was already reaching for his wrist and looking down to check on Flynn's heart.

"I'm waiting for an answer, Captain."

"I wasn't doing anything, sir," Flynn said. "After directing the troops, I returned to my room to lie down for a little while." Dammit, dammit, dammit, his heart skipped a beat as he spoke. He tried to force himself to remain calm, but knowing that he  _had_  to control his heart for fear of his lies being found out just made him more nervous.

Alexei glanced at his wrist. "You're lying to me, Captain."

He braced himself, and then his chest throbbed with pain. His heart raced, throbbing so hard he could feel it in his throat. He attempted to remain at attention, but he lost his composure when he started panting for breath. No matter how many gasps he took, he couldn't seem to get enough air in his lungs. He started to feel light-headed when the pain finally went away.

He was still panting for breath when Alexei said, "I will ask you again, Captain. What were you doing yesterday?"

"I was not doing anything, sir – ah!" The pain hit him again, burning across his chest and into his arms. He gritted his teeth and clenched his fists, digging his nails into his palms until the pain finally edged away and he could breathe normally again.

"I know you assisted you friends. Since I was ultimately successful and you were useful today, I am not going to kill you for your disobedience. So please, just tell me what you were doing."

Flynn took a few deep breaths. There really was no point in continuing to lie, so he said, "I activated the statues of angels in order to open the Sword Stair for them."

"Ah, I suspected as much."

Flynn gasped as another bolt of pain clenched his heart. It throbbed so hard and so fast he feared the blastia would explode. A deep, throbbing ache settled over his chest, his arms, even into his neck and jaw, and the longer it went on, the harder it was to breathe. Gasping for air wasn't going to help get more oxygen into his body if the problem was with blood circulation, but his desperate lungs didn't know that.

The pain cut off and he slumped forward, nearly falling over. He stared at the ground and took a few shaking heaves for air as Alexei said, "Do not defy me again. Stand at attention when I'm speaking to you, Captain. You're allowing you professionalism to slip."

Flynn pulled himself upright and forced himself to look Alexei in the eye. He reminded himself that it was improper to tell one's commanding officer where one might shove their professionalism.

"Your next task is to scour the island for any potential weak points. The main entrance is guarded, but I have no doubt your little friends will try to find some way to sneak in and interfere with my operation."

"Yes, sir." As soon as he found an entry point, he would make sure he kept the knights well away from it.

"You are dismissed. Report back to me once you have done your inspection."

"Yes, sir." Flynn saluted, turned heel, and left. He never thought he would be so grateful to walk back into the damp, dreary corridors of the interior of the shrine. It was a long walk back to the main entrance, and by the time he reached it, the last vestiges of pain had finally left his chest.

He stepped outside into the morning sun, wondering when Yuri would get here. At the very least, one good thing had come from his meeting with Alexei. He now had concrete proof that Yuri was indeed still alive. He'd been confident in his friend all along, but it was nice to have verification. Yuri would come to Zaude and he'd take care of Alexei. The odds were stacked against him, but Yuri always managed to come through in the end. Unlike Zaphias, Flynn would still be here when Yuri arrived, and that might give him the chance to find Yuri and talk to him. At the very least, Flynn could let him and Estelle know he wasn't dead. Imagining the grief they must be going through on his account made him feel guilty, even if it was Alexei's fault.

He made his way around Zaude slowly. Often he had to splash through the ocean where it flooded the thin stone lip surrounding the shrine. Along the eastern wall, he felt a cool breeze hit his wet legs. He paused, and glanced at the wall. There was a vent, covered with iron bars, but a breeze blew out of it. He splashed through the water to get a closer look. Through the bars, he could see the dimly lit interior of the shrine. There were no knights in this part, since it was out of the way and they had left it to the monsters. He tugged on the bars, and they shifted slightly. In a moment, without even having to think about it, he knew that Yuri would use this as a way to get inside.

He briefly considered actually unscrewing the vent with the knife on his belt, but leaving it open like that would be too obvious. Yuri might think it was a trap, or one of the other knights could easily spot it. He left the vent where it was, satisfied that Yuri would have a way to get in. With that in mind, he took off to continue checking the perimeter of the shrine for the show of it. It was a long walk, and he had to wade through water up to his waist at once point.

He didn't mind that the trip took him nearly an hour, because every minute he spent out here in the sun was a minute not spent talking to Alexei at the depths of the ocean. But, he couldn't put that off forever so, with great reluctance, he re-entered the shrine. The guards at the front door gave him funny looks since he was soaking wet, but paid him no heed.

In what seemed like no time at all, Flynn was back down at the heart of the shrine. Alexei stood in the middle, gazing at a series of green circles that hovered in the air. They looked like blastia control panels, but Flynn didn't know nearly enough about blastia to understand what they meant.

Flynn stopped short behind Alexei with a clink of armour. "I have completed my inspection, sir. There are no weak points."

Alexei paused from surveying the blastia controls to turn to Flynn. "Very good. You are certain, then, that the only way for anyone to enter the shrine is through the main entrance?"

Flynn nodded. "Yes, sir."

Alexei looked down at his wrist and opened the control panel for Flynn's heart. Flynn shifted his weight nervously, reminding himself that it was vital he not let Alexei know about the vent he'd found.

Alexei glanced up at him again. "Tell me again, Captain. What weak points did you find?"

Thinking about how difficult it was to lie to Alexei set off his nerves. He could faintly see the moving, jagged line on Alexei's screen, showing his heart rate steadily increasing. Yuri was such a good liar; how did he manage it without freaking out? "There are no viable entrance points, sir." He was so afraid that Alexei would catch him in his lie that his heart skipped a beat as he said it.

"What did you find, Captain?" Alexei said. "Where will your friend attempt to enter?"

"I don't know," Flynn said. "I did not find any openings."

"I wold have thought that after your experience earlier, you would have learned that it is quite useless to lie to me. Where is the opening?"

"I don't know." Flynn prepared himself for the pain, but that didn't make it any easier to bear. His face scrunched up, but he told himself he could handle this. He'd done it a few times now, after all.

Alexei kept this going for nearly a minute before letting Flynn breathe easily again. "I will ask you again. Where is the opening?"

Flynn hesitated before speaking, because he knew that as soon as he spoke he was in for more pain. He took as long as he dared to try and catch his breath before saying, "I don't kn- argh!"

"Go ahead and keep lying to me, Captain," Alexei said calmly as Flynn gripped his chest in agony. "I guarantee I can keep this up longer than you can."

The pain died down. "I have… nothing… to tell you," he gasped.

"I see," Alexei said. "Well, we have plenty of time. We'll see how long that resolve lasts."

Flynn doubled over when another wave of pain struck him.

* * *

"Is everyone ready to go?" Yuri asked, looking around the assembled group in the castle's main entrance.

"Yeah," Rita said. "We need to get to Zaude so we can kick Alexei's ass!"

"Alright," Yuri said, forcing a casual grin. He felt embarrassed enough about letting Judy and Estelle see him get bent out of shape last night. Flynn was gone, and that hurt more than he was willing to admit, but letting that rip him up and make him unable to fight Alexei would be a poor way to honour his memory. "Let's head to the Fiertia then."

"Actually," Raven said, "I was thinkin' we should hitch a ride on the knight ship. Ba'ul's still a bit tired, and we're all headin' there anyway, right?"

"Wont' that take longer?" Yuri asked.

"Not too much longer," Estelle said. "And having the knights with us will make it easier to get in."

Yuri tried not to get too frustrated. He was impatient to get to Alexei, but hadn't Flynn always told him to stop being so impatient? Maybe now was a good time to start listening to him. "I guess that's fine."

He heard footsteps, and Sodia entered the room. When she saw them assembled, she turned to Raven and said, "Sir, the brigade is ready to depart at your word."

Raven waved his hand. "Yeah, sure."

"So, the Flynn Brigade is all set to come with us, then?" Yuri asked. He frowned, and then added, "Although, I guess you're the Sodia Brigade now, huh?"

Sodia stood up a little straighter when she looked at Yuri and said, "No, we are still the Flynn Brigade. We will always be the Flynn Brigade."

Yuri smiled a bit. "Alright then. So, what is the Flynn Brigade's plan?"

"We're thinkin' of splittin' inta two groups," Raven said. "The main faction will try ta enter through the front and draw most of the enemy ta them. With the Royal Guards distracted, a smaller group will find a back door and sneak in."

"I'm guessing Brave Vesperia is going to be the smaller group?" Yuri asked.

"Correct," Sodia said. "Commandant Raven has complete faith in your guild to carry out this task. Our hope is that at least one approach will be able to reach Alexei."

"We can do it," Karol said.

"That's right," Estelle said. "Alexei must pay for all the people he's hurt."

"If we've got that worked out, then let's get going," Yuri said.

He started walking to the door, but Sodia didn't start following until Raven said, "You heard the kid; let's move out."

* * *

Flynn's shoulders heaved with the effort of breathing. Sweat dripped down his white face, and he leaned forward to let his hands help support him. He'd stayed on his feet for as long as possible, but after a while it was all he could do to keep himself on his knees. The sharp chest pain had faded away, but by this point even between attacks he felt a constant ache. They'd been at this for nearly an hour now. Alexei was busy working on the formula, pausing every couple of minutes to return Flynn's heart to normal and give him a chance to breathe. Every time, he asked Flynn the same question, and every time Flynn refused to answer.

"Where will your friends be entering, Captain?" Alexei asked.

Flynn bit his lip and shook his head, not trusting himself to speak. The words were on the tip of his tongue:  _the vent on the eastern wall_. That was all he had to say and then this torture would end. He couldn't say it, though. He couldn't betray Yuri for the sake of his own comfort… but damn if it wasn't tempting.

"Still nothing?" Alexei said, turning back to his work. "Very well."

He couldn't hold back a strangled groan of pain when his muscles when taut and his chest clenched. What was this, the thirtieth, thirty-fifth time today? He'd lost count somewhere around twenty. He stared down at his fingers splayed out on the smooth marble floor. His knuckles were bone white but the tips of his fingers were turning a sickly shade of blue. The breaks Alexei gave him which allowed his blood to circulate normally for a minute or so were far from enough and he didn't know how much longer he could take this, both mentally and physically. Surely eventually his heart would give out from so much stress. He actually looked forward to that happening.

Alexei stood with his back to him, wrapped up in his blastia research. Had he forgotten about him? Surely this bout was lasting far longer than the others, but then he'd thought that about all of them. Maybe Alexei would forget about him and let him die and turn around to find he'd accidentally killed his puppet. Ha, that would show him… But  _fuck,_  this hurt.

"You are beginning to try my patience, Captain," Alexei said, finally turning around. "Where can intruders get into the shrine?"

There was a sudden spike and Flynn shouted in surprise. Pain curled in his stomach, clenched around his spine, burned through his chest, squeezed his arms tight, and throbbed in his already-sore neck and jaw. This wasn't fair; he hadn't given Flynn a break to ask questions!

"Tell me, Captain."

He couldn't. He  _couldn't_. The words were in his mouth, begging to be let out. Every one of his agonized muscles screamed at his brain to stop trying to be noble and just make this stop already.  _The vent on the eastern wall_. He groaned, struggling to hold it in. His fingers were really blue now; his heart was barely pumping any blood at all, which explained why his head throbbed with dizziness in addition to all his other pains. The words ran over and over in his head, but he couldn't let himself speak. Yuri's life might depend on it.

"I'm waiting."

Everything suddenly doubled in intensity and a hoarse shout tore out of his throat. "The vent on the eastern wall!" The words were out of his mouth before could think about it, and it took him a few seconds to realize he'd said it out loud. Shit.  _Shit_. The pain stopped and his heart beat returned to normal, but Flynn was so furious with himself it was hardly any relief.

"Interesting. Thank you for your advice, Captain. I knew you would be more useful here than that fool Yeager."

"Sir?" He glanced up a bit in confusion. The name sounded familiar, but he was pretty sure he'd heard it in the context of the guilds. What he might have to do with Alexei was a mystery.

"My other puppet," Alexei said, although that didn't explain much. "I considered bringing him here, but I thought your assistance would be sufficient. Stay here." Alexei strode away, no doubt to give his lieutenants orders pertaining to the vent.

Flynn stayed on his hands and knees, regaining his energy. How could he have done that? How could he have been so weak? If Yuri got killed trying to get in through that vent now, it would be his fault. Some knight he was.

Alexei returned and glanced down at him. "On your feet, Captain."

Flynn stayed down for a few more seconds, not because he needed to but because even that small show of defiance made him feel a little better about himself. Soldiers are not held accountable for things said under torture, he reminded himself. It didn't make him feel any better. Maybe other knights would forgive him, but he couldn't forgive himself.

"You are to remain here, Captain," Alexei said as Flynn got shakily to his feet. "I will let you know when your services are required again. Do not bother me."

"Yes, sir." He was annoyed at how weak his voice sounded. Alexei focused his efforts into analyzing the shrine, and Flynn stood off to the side.

What now? If he could, he'd go straight to the vent and find some way of putting up a warning to Yuri to prevent him from entering there. Alexei obviously knew what he had in mind, though, because he was stuck here in the middle of the damned shrine, unable to influence anything. He gave Alexei a furtive glance, feeling the weight of his sword at his waist. If he could kill that bastard right now…

But Alexei only needed seconds to shut Flynn down, even without fighting back and probably besting him with his superior sword skills. Flynn would need to be fast, and right now he didn't think he could be. After an hour of on-and-off heart attacks, it was all he could do to stay on his feet. No, attacking Alexei now would be pointless. Nothing would be accomplished but more pain, and that wouldn't help anyone. The best he could do now was wait and recover his strength until an opportunity arose.

* * *

"There sure are a lot of guards," Karol said, peeking over a boulder with a worried expression. "How are we going to get in?"

"Don't worry," Yuri said, crouching next to him, "we'll find another way in."

"It's probably swarming with guards on the inside, too," Judith said, frowning slightly.

"Yeah, well don't forget we thought the castle would be packed with guards too," Rita said. "And that was way easier than expected."

"Don't get too confident," Raven said. "We got lucky at Zaphias, but we don't wanna get reckless."

He glanced at Yuri as he spoke. Yuri would be annoyed, but he knew he was determined to get to Alexei no matter what it took or how risky it was. Letting Alexei get away again, after everything he'd done, was not an option. If he thought his friends would let him get away with it, he'd take off and go after Alexei alone because he was willing to get hurt and risk everything to stop him. He looked to Raven. "So, what's your plan, Commandant?"

Raven clasped his hands behind his neck and leaned back. "I told ya, don't call me that. I'm only doing this gig until Ioder finds some other schmuck. Anyway, the Flynn Brigade is going to make a move on the front door. That should give you guys a chance to sneak in."

"Are you coming with us, Raven?" Estelle asked.

"Sorry, darlin'," Raven said, "I'll be taggin' along with Sodia and the knights."

"Good riddance," Rita muttered.

"I'm hurt!" Raven said, clutching his chest. "You should respect your elders more."

"You should go meet up with Sodia, Old Man," Yuri said, standing upright. "Let's get this infiltration under way. Every minute I spend not murdering that piece of crap Alexei just makes me madder."

"Alright, I'm goin', I'm goin'," Raven said. "Little Miss Sodia is back with the troops." The ship they'd come in on was docked around the back of the shrine, where the stone ring's elevation was high enough to conceal it.

"Hey," Yuri said, and Raven paused mid-exit, glancing back. "Good luck. Don't get yourself killed."

Raven smirked. "Give ol' Raven a little more faith, will ya? You young'uns be careful, alright?" He gave a little wave and took off toward the ship.

"Anybody need to do anything before we head in?" Yuri looked around the group.

"I don't think so," Estelle said.

"Alright," Yuri said, "then let's find a way into this place." He took off, trusting the others to follow. There had to be a way to sneak in, and he was going to find it. He splashed through the shallow water, scanning the walls of the shrine. There were windows they could climb through further up, but they'd need to get on the roof of the lower section. Water cascaded down the walls, which would make climbing difficult. He could do it, but it would be nice if they could find an opening closer to the ground. A grey square near the base of the wall caught his eye. "Hey, Captain Karol, what do you think of that?" He pointed to the small barred opening. "Could you open that?"

"I think so," Karol said. "I could probably smash it open."

"Let's go for it," Yuri said. "Looks like out best bet." The water in front of the vent reached his mid-shin, soaking through his boots and socks. He hoped heavy, sloshing feet wouldn't slow him down too much.

Karol fiddled with the screws around the grate. Yuri thought it was taking far too long, but he was just antsy to get in. The trip to get here had been bad enough. There had been nothing to do on the ship, and when his mind went idle he had time to think about Flynn, which made him miserable.

"Rita, calm down, I'm alright."

Yuri glanced over his shoulder in time to see Rita ball her fists up and say, "I – I'm not worrying!"

"You clearly are," Judith said. "You've been fretting over Estelle since we left Zaphias."

Rita's cheeks were pink and she crossed her arms. "Shut up! Hurry and open that vent, Karol."

"It's ok, Rita," Estelle said with a smile. "I appreciate you worrying about me."

"I got it," Karol said, stepping back in triumph.

"Great job," Yuri said. "Let's go." He grabbed the bars and pried the grate away from the opening, and then bent low and stepped into the shrine. It was pitch black inside after the bright sun outdoors. The air was heavy and wet, and water drops echoed in the distance. "Everyone in?" he asked, looking back. There were a couple silhouettes standing right in front of the vent, but otherwise he couldn't see enough to make out who was in.

"I'm the last one in," Judy said.

"Right," Rita said. "Let's go kick Alexei's ass!"

"Sh!" Estelle's voice was barely above a whisper. "Keep your voice down, Rita. We don't know where Alexei's knights are."

"Oh, um, sorry, Estelle."

Before Rita and Estelle could get distracted in consoling each other, Yuri set off into the shrine. He held his hand out and found a stone railing to lead the way until his eyes adjusted. The railing turned, and the floor disappeared beneath him. "Whoa!" He stumbled forward, and thankfully someone grabbed the back of his jacket and yanked him upright. He took a second to realize he wasn't currently falling to his death, and then said, "Stairs."

There were only a few steps, and then he was on solid ground again. His eyes were beginning to adjust to the darkness, and he saw a snatch of movement out of the corner of his eye. He reached for his sword, ready to fight off a monster, when light flared around the chamber. He raised his arm and squinted against the sudden light. He couldn't wait long for his eyes to re-adjust, because over thirty knights swarmed right at him.

He lowered his arm and met them with a clank of steel. There were knights all around them, popping out from under the platform they'd entered on, cutting off the stairs, surrounding and separating them. Yuri didn't have time to think about it between fighting them off and trying not to get killed, but the word snuck into his brain regardless:  _ambush_. Somehow, they'd known they were coming.

"Ah!" Rita shouted. "Protect me while I'm casting!"

"I'm trying!" Estelle called back. "There's too many!"

Yuri grunted as one of the knights landed a blow across his arm. There were too many to possibly keep them all back. He'd managed to take down a couple already, but there were four more to take their place. When he could spare a glance at the rest of the party, he could tell the others weren't doing any better. Rita barely managed to fend the knights off with her book, having no time to cast.

 _We're not going to win this one_. The thought crossed his mind without seriously thinking about it. They'd fought when they were outnumbered before, but this was ridiculous. They were taking heavy damage and they'd barely made a dent in the force of knights. At this point he'd normally suggest they retreat, but their escape was cut off.

Rita shouted, and Yuri tore his eyes away from the knight in front of him just long enough to see her fall to the ground with a bloody gash across her chest.

"Rita!" Estelle screamed when the knights moved in to finish her off. "Stop! We surrender! Everybody, please stop fighting! We surrender!"

"We  _what_?!" Yuri shouted back.

"We're not going to win this fight, Yuri," Estelle said, tossing her sword to the ground.

The knights looked to their leader for orders as the rest of Brave Vesperia lowered their weapons dejectedly. The rest of them had accepted defeated as well as Estelle had. Karol, Judith, and Repede all carried various injuries and Yuri knew that surrender was the logical thing to do. They were outnumbered six to one, taken by surprise, and totally surrounded. Yuri's grip tightened around his sword and sighed through clenched teeth. He threw his sword to the ground with a clatter. Knights moved in quickly to pick it up and point their own swords at his chest. Yuri glared death at them as the rest of the group handed over their weapons.

Estelle rushed to Rita's side and wasted no time in healing her wound before helping her to her feet. Rita pulled away from her, "I'm alright, Estelle, stop grabbing me."

"Are you sure you're ok?" Estelle said, clinging to Rita's arm. "I think I healed the wound completely, but-"

" _Yes_ , Estelle. Worry about yourself, ok?"

One of the knights asked, "Uh, what do we do with them?"

Obviously the possibility of surrender had not been part of their orders. Their leader thought for a bit, and then said, "Um… I guess we should take them to the commandant. We can't kill them if they've surrendered…that's a war crime."

"Great," Yuri said. "So at least you're not all  _complete_  wastes of life."

The lieutenant glared at him for a second, and then said, "Move out, men. Careful not to let the mage cast."

Rita might actually have been able to murder him with his gaze had he risked looking her in the eye.

One of the knights shoved Yuri, and he snapped, "Yeah, I get it, I'm going, I'm going."

They took off, surrounded by knights and now unarmed. There were not enough swear words in his vocabulary to properly express how frustrated Yuri felt. They'd barely gotten started and already their plan was going down the drain. Part of him was mad at Estelle for surrendering, but the part of him that was not consumed with rage knew it had probably saved their lives. But how was he going to slowly skewer Alexei and make him pay for all the people he'd hurt – make him pay for  _Flynn_  – if his sword had been confiscated?!

As terrifying as the thought was, he was going to have to put his faith and his hopes in Raven and Sodia.


	7. Invasion

The most frustrating thing was that Flynn had no idea what was going on. He stood at attention a few feet away from Alexei, wondering what was happening throughout the rest of the shrine. He didn't even know if Yuri and the others had arrived yet.

He'd stood there for hours, with nothing to do. He didn't have to try to know that sitting down would be met with disapproval. Flynn didn't normally have a problem standing at attention for extended periods of time, but usually he was actively engaged in listening to someone or paying attention to other soldiers. Now, though, he was just standing there, watching the water fall around the shrine and thinking that observing drying paint would be a more mentally stimulating exercise.

When a soldier ran up to Alexei, Flynn nearly sighed with relief to finally get a distraction. "Sir!" the soldier said. "Forgive the interruption, but our forces are currently engaged with the Flynn Brigade at the front entrance."

Flynn's spirits leapt and he looked to the solider with interest. Alexei, though, seemed annoyed as he pulled himself away from the blastia controls to face the soldier. "And? Why do you need to inform me?"

"Because, uh…" the soldiers shifted his weight, "we're losing, sir."

Flynn couldn't stop the smile on his face, or the swell of pride for his brigade. That's right, his knights were excellent.

"They've broken through the main gate, sir," the soldier said. "They're gaining ground and are charging their way here!"

"Incompetent fools," Alexei. "Captain, take care of this."

Flynn blinked. "Me, sir?"

"You know this brigade better than anyone, including how to best defeat it. You direct the battle."

The soldier looked to Flynn for orders, but Flynn stood frozen. If his brigade were making a charge, Sodia would likely have Yates leading. He was good at this kind of straight-forward melee fighting and excelled at hand-to-hand combat. This was at the expense of getting flustered whenever he was confronted by crossbowmen. In the enclosed hallways of the shrine, the Royal Guard probably wasn't implementing their archers, so Yates was a perfect choice.

"Well, Captain?" Alexei said.

"Hold your ground," Flynn said. "Stick to melee weaponry and confront them head-on. Keep the crossbowmen in reserve and focus on hand-to-hand combat." He couldn't help casting a nervous glance at Alexei. After the lengthy interrogation earlier, he'd become jumpy and paranoid about lying and his muscles tensed upon delivering those orders. They hadn't been straight-out lies, but they certainly weren't without deception. Could Alexei tell he was –

Flynn clutched his chest with a groan. Yeah, Alexei could tell.

While Flynn struggled to stay standing with his chest wracked with pain, Alexei said, "Ignore those orders, Lieutenant. In fact, do the exact opposite."

"Sir?" the soldier said, trying to avoid staring at Flynn.

Alexei glanced dismissively at Flynn. "Focus on ranged attacks with the crossbowmen. Keep the defense mobile and don't attack them head-on."

"Yes, sir!" the lieutenant said, and then ran off to relay the orders.

Alexei turned his attention to Flynn. "I would have thought you learned your lesson by now."

He released Flynn from his heart attack, and turned back to work. Flynn stared at the ground, wondering what he should have done. Yates wouldn't know what to do when confronted by a volley of crossbow bolts around a corner. He might get killed – his whole  _unit_ might get killed – because of what Flynn had said. It wasn't fair; he'd  _tried_  to help them, but even then Alexei had managed to use him against his allies. If Alexei won today, it would be his fault.

He had to do something. He needed to find some way to keep Alexei from winning, or he would never forgive himself. Alexei seemed to love talking about his grand plans, and maybe if he got him talking, it would keep him from doing whatever it was he was doing with the shrine's formula.

He took a deep breath and stood up straight, adopting as formal a pose as he could manage. With as much respect as he could lay on, he said, "Sir, if I may ask, what precisely  _is_  the Enduring Shrine of Zaude?"

Without looking up, Alexei said, "It is a blastia."

"The entire thing, sir?"

"Not the stone architecture, if that is what you're asking."

"I see. How will a giant blastia aid you in your plans, sir?"

"This is not just any blastia," Alexei said. Damn him, he was able to talk while still focusing on the formula. "It is a weapon – the most powerful weapon the world has ever known."

"Just how powerful are we talking about, sir?"

"It will make the Heracles look like a child's plaything."

"Interesting," Flynn said. He tried not to sound too judgmental as he asked, "But, sir, wouldn't a weapon like that be useless? You can't rule the world if the world has been destroyed by your super weapon."

"Don't be daft, Captain," Alexei said. "After a simple demonstration of its power on an uninhabited stretch of land, no one will dare stand against me. The very threat of attack will keep people in line."

Flynn doubted that very much. Keeping a populace in place by threat of fear could only work for so long. Eventually, resentment and hope would inevitably grow more powerful than that fear and another bloody uprising was inevitable. A government could not stand on threat of punishment alone, and that was why Flynn was determined to change the empire through legal, peaceful means. He had little hope that explaining this to Alexei would do any good, so instead he said, "Do you mean to say that once you have unlocked the secret of Zaude, you do not expect any more violence?"

"That is the plan," Alexei said. "Once I have Zaude in my control, only an army of fools would stand against me. I expect the fighting today will be the last."

"I see," Flynn said, trying to sound enthusiastic. "So once we have this weapon, hand-to-hand fighting will become obsolete."

"Your cheer sounds rather forced, Captain," Alexei said with a bit of amusement.

Flynn tried to chuckle. "Sir, if traditional fighting becomes obsolete, I fear a knight like myself may be out of a job. The prospect of ending violence throughout the empire sounds ideal."

Alexei glanced away from his work for a moment. "Are you actually coming around to my side, Captain?"

Complete and total enthusiasm out of nowhere would not be believed, and Alexei could glance down at his control at any time, so Flynn was too afraid to lie. "Sir, the prospect of a stable empire without war or suffering is something I can get behind," Flynn said. "I won't say I don't dislike some of the methods you've chosen, sir, but I know that your intentions are in the right place. If what you say about the shrine is true, sir, it might actually be possible to end the fighting today, rather than the drawn out and bloody coup I was anticipating." It was the truth… or, close enough at least. He watched Alexei closely, wondering if he'd noticed just how often Flynn had dropped 'sir' in that speech.

"Interesting." Alexei went back to work analyzing the formula. If he'd noticed how overly eager Flynn was to sound respectful, he didn't mention it.

Damn, Flynn had hoped he could distract him longer than that. He tried again. "If I may ask, sir, what title do you intend to use upon taking over the empire? Would you declare yourself the new emperor or remain the commandant and turn the country into a military dictatorship?"

"That should not concern you at the moment."

"Yes, sir, but a new empire versus a military dictatorship is a large distinction, and I was just curious as to what direction you're taking the world in."  _Come on, talk to me,_  Flynn thought.

"You are being a distraction, Captain," Alexei said. "I am quite busy, so do not speak to me unless it is necessary."

Flynn's shoulders slumped. "…Yes, sir." He turned away from Alexei and went back to gazing idly at the cascading water. His plan to distract Alexei had failed, although he was pretty sure he'd at least partly convinced him that he wasn't actively working against him anymore. He'd given up hoping that he could overpower Alexei on his own, and after inadvertently helping Alexei stop both Yuri and his brigade's attack, he had to accept the possibility of Alexei's success. If Alexei won, the best thing Flynn could do was convince him he was on his side so that he might drop his guard and give Flynn a chance to work against him.

About fifteen minutes later, another soldier ran in. "Sir! They've broken through our defenses in the western corridor!"

With his back to him, Alexei waved his hand and said, "Captain, take care of this."

Flynn hesitated. Giving purposefully bad orders would result only in Alexei reversing them and then causing Flynn pain. This would not help anybody, and would ruin any trust he might have started building with Alexei. On the other hand, if he gave mediocre but somewhat helpful orders, he could look like he was really trying to help, avoid some pain for himself, and trust in his brigade to overcome them.

"Engage in a retrograde manoeuvre away from the western corridor and rejoin the rest of the guards in the main hall. Hold your position and don't stage an assault on the enemy until you have a strong defensive position to fall back on." They weren't spectacular tactics. It was a straightforward manoeuvre that any other commander could have given, and Flynn was sure his brigade could work through it. However, they weren't actually  _bad_  orders, and Alexei made no sign of complaint.

"Yes, sir!" the soldier said, saluted, and then left.

Flynn watched him go, wondering if he'd done the right thing. It was the only logical action to take, but he couldn't shake the feeling that he was betraying his brigade.

The next half hour passed like that. Whenever a soldier came running in for orders, Flynn gave the most basic directions he could think of. Anyone of his experience and rank would have done the same thing… or at least he thought they would have. The possibility that the things he considered common sense were actually very clever had crossed his mind, and only the fact that the Flynn Brigade was still gaining ground kept him from losing his resolve.

 _I'm doing this to convince Alexei to trust me_ , he told himself. But in the back of his mind, he couldn't deny that he was also motivated to do this in part because he wanted to avoid pain. The fact that he was physically benefiting from his plan made him feel like it couldn't possibly be the best idea for the world, even if he could justify it.

Everything was going according to plan until a soldier stumbled in, clutching a wound on his side and bleeding like crazy. Flynn felt a bit of satisfaction in his men, until he recognized the face.

He ran forward without thinking. "Lieutenant Tanber!"

Tanber dropped to his knees in front of him. "Ugh… hey, Captain. We ain't doing so hot. I tried to lead my squad against that red-headed woman leading the brigade but they were too strong."

Flynn charged up First Aid, while saying, "Idiot! If you're going against Sodia, you should have flanked her from a side hallway!" Sodia was always too confident in her decisions to anticipate surprise attacks. "First Aid." Maybe Tanber was an enemy, and maybe he should be glad that a member of the Royal Guard was bleeding to death, but all he saw was the only friendly face he'd encountered in this lifetime. The prospect of remaining in the Royal Guard without a friend to fall back on was too horrible.

With a flash of light, the wound closed and Tanber closed his eyes in relief. "Whew. Thanks a lot, mate."

"Are you alright?"

Tanber opened his eyes and nodded, and got back to his feet. "Yeah, thanks to you. I'll go try that tactic."

He gave Flynn a grin and then ran off. As he went, the reality of what Flynn had said crept over him. Without thinking, he'd given Tanber advice on how to defeat Sodia. All he'd wanted to do was keep his only friend here from getting hurt again, and he'd spoken without thinking. If Tanber's squad killed Sodia… and who knew if Yuri and Estelle were still alive after Alexei no doubt set an ambush for him… damn it all to hell. His friends were getting hurt because he didn't know how to hold his damned tongue.

* * *

The hike through the shrine took a while. Zaude was a huge place and many of the walkways had crumbled away or flooded out. Every time they took a detour, Yuri thought about how much time they were wasting. He hadn't given up hope yet. As soon as he saw an opening, he'd retake his sword and get away from these knights so he could put Alexei down.

The trek came to a stop when they reached a crumbled away catwalk that crossed a flooded chamber. Water lapped at the edge of the walkway, and in the dim light of the shrine Yuri couldn't even see the bottom of the room through the water. About twenty feet away, the walkway began again.

"There's no other way around this room," one of the knights said. "So we're going to do this one at a time."

About five knights at the front of the group stripped off the heaviest of their armour and put it on a wooden raft they'd no-doubt built and used on the way over here. Then they climbed off the walkway and swam across the room to the far side of the walkway.

"Alright, your turn," one of the knights said to Yuri.

Yuri put his hand on his hip. "I can't swim."

"Just get over there."

"I'm telling you, you'll have to find another way around because I can't-" One of them shoved him and he stumbled, arms flailing around, until he landed in the icy water with a splash. When he surfaced, he coughed and spat water out of his mouth while treading and glaring at them. "Hey! You could have killed me, you know!"

Ten different crossbows trained on him. "Now swim to the other side."

"Alright, alright, I'm going." He took long, slow strokes toward the other walkway. This might be his chance, because there were only five knights over there. They had swords, but not armour. He might be able to overcome them, if he could avoid the crossbowmen on the other side who would no doubt shoot at him.

He climbed out of the water on the other side of the room. The knights over here weren't paying much attention to him, because their eyes were trained on the other walkway, where Rita was preparing to jump into the water and make the swim herself. Now was his chance to make a move on the knights.

Someone else made that move first. When the first arrow sunk into the knight's chest, it took everybody by surprise. When the second arrow hit another knight, the remaining three went into a panic.

"The balcony!" one of them shouted. Across the walkway, the crossbowmen turned and aimed at the balcony overlooking the room. Yuri caught a glimpse of pink flash behind a pillar and then another arrow flew down toward the knights.

They avoided this arrow, but in their panic, they didn't notice Yuri grabbing one of the dead knights' sword. He'd killed one by the time another arrow flew down. The knights across the room fired at him, but he leapt behind a heap of crumbled stone as an arrow killed the final knight on his side of the room. He stayed low while the knights across the water still had their crossbows, peeking over the rubble when he could risk it.

The knights were in a flurry. Up on the balcony, Raven fired shot after shot at the gathered knights. Crossbow bolts flew wild as they attempted to hit him, but he darted behind pillars and walls to stay out of range. In the chaos, Judith kneed a knight in the groin, took his weapon, and then stabbed him in the throat. This set off the rest of the group, who wasted no time in attacking the distracted knights and reclaiming their weapons. Yuri considered swimming back across to help the others, but with arrows flying everywhere he didn't think exposing himself in the water was a smart idea.

With a flash of pink, Raven leapt from the balcony. He'd apparently run out of arrows, and landed in the middle of the fray to join the fighting up close. Yuri worried that without his assault from above, they'd fall into the same overwhelming situation they'd surrendered to the first time. However, in the knights' confusion Rita had manage to step off to the side and power up a spell.

The room grew dark, and Yuri poked his head over the rubble to see massive spheres of coloured light spring up around the room. He grinned in satisfaction as Rita shouted, "Oh power that lies at the root of all creation, oh memory inscribed in ages past, hear my call and arise before me!" Swirling light flashed all around them and Rita shouted, "Ancient Catastrophe!"

The knights fell over, but there was another effect of the massive spell. Across the room, a blue crystal on a plinth shattered when the surging aer of Rita's spell hit it. The room rumbled, and then the water started draining out of the room.

Yuri stood up and looked across the broken walkway. "Hey, Old Man, what took you so long?!"

Raven looked up from retrieving his arrows. "Is that how you thank me for saving your butts? I tell ya, no respect for the old man."

Yuri walked to the edge of the walkway. By now, there was nothing but a thin puddle of water on the floor over thirty feet below. "So, how are you guys going to get over here?"

He heard footsteps and armour clanking behind him, and whirled around, expecting more knights. It was a knight, but this one was in the blue of the Flynn Brigade. "Sodia?" A staircase from the balcony wrapped around to connect with his side of the walkway.

"Yuri Lowell." It was a tense greeting, but at least she didn't draw her sword on him.

"Where's the rest of your brigade?" Yuri asked.

Sodia's face went tight. "We got separated. Our unit got surprised from the side and we were cut off from the main force. Most of the soldiers with us were killed, but Commandant Raven and I managed to get away thanks to him using a powerful attack against the Royal Guard."

"Oh, yeah?" Yuri turned around again to look across the room. "What kind of attack, Old Man?"

Raven grinned. "Oh, you know, just a little blast from my chest. What's the plan now, Yuri?"

Yuri crossed his arms and surveyed the room. "Anyone see another way to get across?"

"Doesn't look like it," Karol said. "There's probably another route to get to the heart of the shrine, but it might take a while to get there."

Yuri frowned. They didn't have time for the others to find another way around. He needed to get to Alexei  _now_. "Alright," he said. "You guys try to find another way through, and I'll head for Alexei on my own."

"Yuri, no," Estelle said. "That's way too dangerous. You can't face him by yourself."

"He's not going alone," Sodia said. "I'm going with him."

Yuri sighed. He had expected that, but it was still a pain. If he had to choose anyone in this room to accompany him in the fight against Alexei, Sodia would be last on his list. Well, she might rank above a dead member of the Royal Guard, but only just. Still, having anyone to back him up would probably give him better odds of killing Alexei, so he'd have to deal with it.

"Don't get into trouble, you guys," Yuri said, giving them a small wave. "I'll see you later."

"Be careful!" Estelle called.

"Yeah!" Rita said. "You'd better not get yourself killed."

"Let's go," Yuri said to Sodia, and they took off.

He and Sodia walked in silence for a few minutes. Sodia had no interest in conversing with a wanted criminal, and Yuri thought there were probably monsters in the dark reaches of the Weasand of Cados that he would prefer talking to.

Sodia was the one to break the silence. "What happened to your party?"

"We got ambushed," Yuri said.

"How did the Royal Guard know to ambush you?"

"I've got no idea," Yuri said. "How's the invasion going? Any idea how the rest of your troops are faring?"

Sodia frowned. "I'm not positive. We were doing quite well until that surprise attack. My hope is that the others are still winning even without my guidance."

"Well that's something at least. I think we're almost at the centre of the shrine now."

"Good," Sodia said. "Alexei needs to be brought to justice."

"Hey, you and I agree on something for once."

"I don't know why you're so concerned about this," Sodia said. "You have no sense of justice."

The founding principles of Brave Vesperia was enforcing justice. He didn't bother explaining that, though. She probably wouldn't even believe him. "After what this bastard did to Flynn, you don't think I want to kill the guy?"

"That isn't justice," Sodia said. "That's revenge."

Yuri's grip tightened on his sword. It wasn't just revenge, he told himself. Ragou and Cumore hadn't been revenge either. Yeah, killings those pieces of crap had been satisfying, but he'd done it to keep them from hurting others. Revenge was just a bonus, just like avenging Flynn would be a nice bonus to putting Alexei down before he could hurt anyone else. "Why can't it be both? Don't tell me you don't want to see him suffer for what he did to Flynn, too."

"Revenge is not the way of the knights," Sodia said. "It is not what Captain Flynn would have wanted. If you were truly his friend, you'd respect his wishes."

"I don't feel like I need to always go along with what Flynn wants to be his friend. That's not how friendship works. Besides, why do you care about fixing my attitude or whatever now? It's not like I'm going to be corrupting your precious captain anymore."

Sodia stiffened. "The captain…" he voice broke off, and she took a deep breath. "Even if it's too late to help Captain Flynn, you are still a criminal. When the crisis with Alexei is over, I will have no choice but to bring you to justice."

Yuri actually found Sodia's determination to arrest him somewhat admirable. It was annoying, yes, but hey, at least she was sticking to it.

Ten minutes later, they peeked around a corridor and found a long, wide hall lined with pillars with a massive stone door at the far end. About ten knights stood on guard in the hallway.

"I think this is it," Sodia said. "Alexei should be just beyond that door."

"Excellent." Yuri held up his sword, which was actually one of the knights' sword, and said, "I think we can take them."

"It might be difficult with just the two of us."

"If we work together, I'm sure we can take them. Let's get them and then we can pound Alexei."

Sodia pulled her sword out as well. "Alright." Without another word, they ran into the hallway.

* * *

No one had come for more orders after Tanber left. Flynn wasn't sure if this was a good sign or not. It saved him from having to give any orders, but it also meant he had no way of knowing how Tanber's attack on Sodia had gone. He desperately wanted Sodia to be alright, but he also didn't want Tanber to get killed. The possibility of everyone he cared about getting out of this shrine alive were dismally low.

The only plus side was that after giving those directions to Tanber, Alexei's trust in him seemed to have risen greatly. He'd willingly given unique advice on how to beat his brigade, after all. Damn, he wanted to kick himself. Alexei in general seemed to be in a good mood, which could only mean his analysis of the shrine's formula was going well. As long as Alexei was in a good mood, Flynn was in a bad mood.

Shouts and clanks from the corridor reached Flynn's ears. He turned to the entrance, but Alexei didn't seem to have noticed. Flynn had only heard over the sound of the waterfall because he was bored and had nothing else to focus on. From the sound of things, the fighting had gotten pretty close.

"Sir," he said.

Alexei glanced at him. "This had better be important, Captain."

"Sir, I think…" he hesitated before saying 'my brigade', because he was trying to convince Alexei that he considered himself part of the Royal Guard now. Instead he said, "The enemy has reached the outside corridor, sir."

Alexei glanced over his shoulder. "So it would seem. Take care of it, Captain."

"Sir?"

"Make yourself useful and take care of the intruders. If you fail to keep them from entering, I will be most displeased with you."

"Yes, sir." Flynn didn't have to ask to know that Alexei's displeasure would be accompanied by pain. He marched to the corridor, wondering if it was really possible that his brigade had made it here. If they were, they could storm in and surely all of them together could take down Alexei. The chance that this could all be over barely seemed possible.

He entered the corridor and was not met by his entire brigade. Instead, he saw two people, panting for breath and standing over the bodies of about ten knights. They had a few minor injuries, but the smiles on their faces said they were quite satisfied with themselves. Best of all, they were two of Flynn's favourite people in the world. He stood still, staring at the pair of them with a smile on his face, while the duo turned to face their new opponent. Their angry expressions dropped the moment they laid eyes on him.

"C-Captain?" Sodia said. Her eyes were wide while next to her, Yuri's mouth hung slightly open.

Flynn's smile widened and he quickly cleared the distance between them. "I can't tell you how happy I am to see the two of you."

When he got close, Yuri raised his sword angrily. Flynn halted and leaned back a bit when he suddenly found Yuri's sword pointed at his chest. "What the hell is going on?" Yuri said.

"Put that sword down!" Sodia shouted, grabbing his arms. "How dare you point that at Captain Flynn!"

Yuri angrily met Flynn's gaze. "Estelle saw Flynn die with her own eyes. Who the hell are you and what kind of sick game is Alexei playing?"

"Yuri, please calm down," Flynn said, holding him his hands. "I can explain."

"You'd better."

"It is true that Alexei killed me." He reached to the neck of his shirt, slowly so Yuri wouldn't think he was going for a weapon, and pulled the collar away to expose the scars around his neck.

Sodia's hand went to her mouth while Yuri grimaced.

"However," Flynn said, "I know this may seem difficult to believe, but Alexei brought me back from death by installing a blastia in my chest in place of my heart." He'd show them that, too, but it was buried under layers of clothing and armour.

Yuri lowered his sword and swore. Sodia gave him an annoyed glance, and then Yuri said, "So the bastard got you, too, huh?"

"What do you mean, 'me too'?"

"Nothing. I just know another guy in the same condition." He sheathed his sword completely. "So it really is you."

"If you have any further doubts, I'd be happy to tell you embarrassing stories about your childhood."

Yuri paled at the thought. "That won't be necessary."

Flynn smiled, and then said, "It's good to-"

And then Yuri punched him in the face.

"Yuri, what the hell?!" Flynn clutched his cheek while Sodia shouted in alarm. It hadn't been that hard of a punch, but it was the principle of the thing.

"That's for making me think you were dead," Yuri said.

Flynn scowled, one hand still on his face. "It's not like I had a choice in the matter."

Yuri grabbed Flynn's other hand and squeezed tightly, before pulling him close and wrapping his other arm around Flynn's shoulders. With a rare genuine smile and honest sentiment, he said, "Flynn… it's really good to see you."

Flynn lowered his hand from his face. "You, too, Yuri."

After a quick pat on the back, Yuri let him go. He then looked his outfit up and down and said, "What's with the getup?"

Flynn glanced down at the red uniform he wore and scowled. "I didn't have a choice in this matter, either. Trust me, I hate it more than you do. Where's the rest of your party?"

"We got separated," Yuri said. "We tried to sneak in through a vent on the side, but we got ambushed. Raven and Sodia came to the rescue, but the rest of the group got trapped on the other side of a broken walkway."

"We got separated from the others as well," Sodia said. "We were taken by surprise by a side assault and our force split in two. Only Raven and I made it out alive from our side of the split."

Flynn's good spirits upon seeing his friends were dragged down by this news. "What of the rest of the invasion?"

"It's going alright," Sodia said. "There have been about equal losses on both sides, but we've gained a lot of ground. Sir… Lieutenant Yates is dead. He was leading the attack but the Royal Guard suddenly switched to crossbows and he was killed in the crossfire."

Flynn let out a deep breath. "I see." He hung his head. "All of this is my fault."

"What are you talking about?" Yuri asked.

"All of the problems you've encountered have been thanks to the things I've let slip to Alexei. Advising him that you'd enter through the vent, telling the guards to switch to crossbows, suggesting attacking your unit from the side… that was all me." He stared at the ground, unable to look them in the eyes and see their disappointment.

When Yuri spoke, he sounded angry. However, the anger wasn't directed at Flynn. "Let me guess, Alexei forced it out of you?"

Flynn nodded. "I wasn't strong enough to resist. And also… I slipped up. I said things that I shouldn't have."

"You mustn't blame yourself, sir," Sodia said. "No one will hold things said under torture against you."

Flynn shook his head. "It wasn't all under torture, Sodia. You nearly died, and many of our comrades did die, because I unthinkingly suggested a surprise assault from the side. I had hoped to be able to use my position to help as much as I could, but so far I've done more harm than good."

"Stop it," Yuri said. "I get that you've had a tough time, but wallowing in self-pity isn't going to help." Sodia glared at Yuri, furious that he would take up such a tone with Flynn. Yuri ignored her and continued. "I don't know exactly what Alexei's been doing to you, but I do know he is one sadistic bastard so he's probably been screwing with your head. As far as I'm concerned, you can't be blamed for anything you said or did while with him. Now, are you gonna help us murder Alexei or what?"

Flynn raised his head. To know that his best friend wasn't ashamed of what he'd done and still supported him did a great job of raising his spirits. He nodded firmly. "Yeah. Let's take Alexei down. I don't want him to ever be able to use me to hurt others again."

"Then what are you waiting for? We've got an ass to kick."

Yuri led the way through the door and out onto the platform surrounded by waterfalls. They stopped at the end of the walkway, and Yuri yanked his sword out of the sheath. He tossed the sheath aside and growled, "Alexei."

Alexei turned around from the blastia formula. "Ah… I see Flynn was quite useless."

"You got a lot to answer for, Alexei," Yuri said.

"Why are you doing this?!" Sodia clenched her fists and glared at Alexei with fury. "You used to have the good of the empire at heart, but now you've turned into the very evil you sought to destroy!"

"Absolute power is the only way to revive this rotting, stagnant empire. All will become clear once I demonstrate my power to the world. Ask your beloved captain – he at least understands."

Yuri and Sodia looked to him, and Flynn balled his fists. "All I understand is that you're so hungry for power you've managed to convince yourself your actions are just."

Alexei gazed at him for a few seconds, and then said, "What a shame. I had really hoped you might have come around to seeing things from my point of view."

"In your dreams," Yuri said. "Flynn might be an idiot-"

"Hey!"

"-but he's a noble idiot. You're crazier than I thought you were if it even crossed your mind that this sparkly do-gooder could be corrupted."

Flynn frowned at Yuri, but he supposed it had ended up being a compliment… sort of.

"I tire of your distractions," Alexei said. He punched something into the control panel and the whole platform shook. The square outline in the middle of the platform broke free and lifted up. "Rest assured, Captain, that when I return with Zaude's power in my grasp, you will be punished severely for your insubordination."

"He's getting away!" Sodia said as the platform rose into the air.

"Dammit!" Yuri said. "Get back here you bastard!"

He sprinted forward with Flynn and Sodia following close behind. Yuri leapt onto the platform, but Flynn wasn't at his peak of physical fitness and fell behind. Luckily, the second Sodia landed on the platform next to Yuri, she turned back and held out her hand, so that when Flynn jumped up she grabbed him and pulled him the rest of the way.

"Thanks," Flynn panted.

"Any time, Captain."

"Do you earnestly believe you can defeat me?" Alexei asked with a touch of amusement. "Captain Flynn, be a good tool and take care of these distractions for me."

Flynn packed all the resentment, hatred and anger he'd bottled up since getting arrested outside Zaphias into a single forceful, "No." He went on to say, "I won't be following any more orders from you,  _sir_." It might theoretically be possible to make that 'sir' sound more sarcastic, but Flynn would be surprised to see it.

"You're even more useless than that fool Schwann."

"Shut up, already!" Yuri said. "I'm not here to talk, I'm here to beat your ass!"

Yuri started running forward, but before he could take more than a couple of steps, Alexei reached for his wrist. The agony was immediate and all-consuming. It made every heart attack up until now seem like child's play. Flynn let out a strangled shout and dropped to his knees, clutching his chest.

Yuri faltered. "Flynn?"

"Captain!" Sodia fell to her knees next to him. "Captain, what's wrong?"

"Stay where you are," Alexei said, almost sounding bored. "I'm still quite busy and would prefer not to fight at this moment. I can assure you that any further attempt to engage me in battle will only result in worsening conditions for your friend. I've never tried making a blastia heart work this hard, before. How much more do you think it can take before it explodes?"

"Dammit," Yuri growled. He crouched in front of Flynn. "Let him go, Alexei!"

Flynn's heart beat so fast he could barely feel it and the world spun with dizziness. He panted, "Ignore me… kill him."

With gritted teeth Yuri looked between Flynn and Alexei. "I  _can't_ , Flynn. If I attack him you'll die."

"Captain, how can we help?" Sodia asked with an edge of barely contained panic.

"Just… kill… him." If they didn't stop Alexei, his plans would come to fruition and everyone would suffer. He couldn't let Yuri and Sodia throw the fight on his account; he would not let more people die because of him.

"I told you, stupid!" Yuri said. "We can't unless we want him to explode your heart."

Flynn shook his head. "Then just… kill me." He held in a groan of pain; this agony gave hanging a run for its money, but Yuri and Sodia were worried enough without him showing that weakness.

"Absolutely not," Sodia said.

"Don't let him… use me… against y– argh…" He squeezed his eyes shut and clenched his teeth.

"I just got you back, dumbass," Yuri snapped. "We'll find another way."

Flynn shook his head. He didn't have the breath to spare explaining, but he stared into Yuri's eyes, praying his friend could read his reasoning. If Yuri and Sodia didn't stop Alexei, he'd win and then kill them all. Even worse, he might keep Flynn around in servitude once more, and Flynn didn't think he could take much more of that. If they attacked him, Alexei would let Flynn's heart kill him slowly and painfully. But, if Yuri killed him right now, he could do it quick and relatively painlessly, and then Alexei couldn't use him again them anymore.

"Please, Yuri."

"Don't make me do this, Flynn." Yuri's face was white and his hand on Flynn's shoulder shook. "I geared myself up to do it to Estelle, and I don't think I have it in me to do it again."

Flynn glanced to Alexei, who was busy studying the formula again. He'd been at this all day – surely he'd figure it out any time now. They didn't have time to sit around agonizing over their decision. He glanced to Sodia, but he could tell by her face that there was no way in hell she'd even consider harming him. Damn, and she'd promised, too.

"Yuri…" he begged. He feared he was going to lose consciousness soon, and if he didn't talk Yuri into killing him before that, everything would be over. The only consolation was that blacking out would be a relief from this agony. " _Please_."

Yuri closed his eyes and took a deep breath through his clenched teeth. He abruptly stood, grabbed the collar of Flynn's shirt, and pulled him to his feet. His white-knuckled hand supported most of Flynn's weight, because Flynn's legs didn't want to work properly right now.

"Hey! Alexei!" Yuri shouted, his voice raw. With his free hand, he grabbed the knife from Flynn's belt.

"What are you doing?!" Sodia shouted, reaching for the knife. "You're not actually going to-"

Yuri spared a quick glance over his shoulder. "Trust me."

Sodia bit her lip and looked to Flynn. Flynn nodded to her, silently telling her to trust Yuri. He knew she already hated Yuri, and he felt bad that she would probably never forgive Yuri after he went through with this. Maybe someday she'd understand, but for now he was causing a lot of problems for Yuri.

When Alexei looked back at them, Yuri yelled, "You know, I really hate it when bastards like you try to use hostages. That's the dirtiest kind of fighting, if you ask me. You'd better prepare yourself for a real fight instead of hiding behind Flynn, you asshole!"

Alexei raised an eye and reached for his wrist. "Oh, you want to see how much more painful I can make this for your friend?"

"No," Yuri said. "I'm setting him free." He looked to Flynn. They met each other's eyes, and Flynn tried to give him a smile to tell him everything was going to be alright. With a scowl of rage so furious it could melt Zopheir, Yuri sank the knife into Flynn's gut.

"No!" Sodia screamed.

Yuri let go of Flynn and he fell to the ground with a thud.

"Interesting," Alexei said.

"How could you do that?!" Sodia screamed at Yuri.

"Sodia…" Flynn gasped. "Please… focus on Alexei."

She stared at him with teary eyes and a clenched jaw, but then gave a tight nod.

"Let's do this Alexei," Yuri said, raising his sword. "No more games. It's time for you to pay for all the people you've hurt."

Alexei drew his own sword. "If you insist. It won't take too much time to defeat you."

Flynn heard running footsteps, and then a clang of metal. He couldn't get his eyes to open right now, though. To his eternal relief, the pain in his chest faded away, though this left him with only the rather excruciating knife in his gut to focus on. Dammit, Yuri, there were so many better places to stab someone if you wanted to kill them quickly.

Oh well. He could feel unconsciousness coming on fast, so he lay still and awaited it. It wasn't that Flynn wanted to die, but after everything he'd been through in the past few days, it wasn't entirely unwelcome. Besides, he felt like he was living on borrowed time as it was. He wished he could help Yuri and Sodia in their fight against Alexei, but all he could do now was lie still and wait for the blackness to overtake him.


	8. Chapter 8

Alexei fell to the ground. Yuri dropped to one knee, using his sword to support himself. His shoulders heaved and not a single square inch of his body didn't hurt from some injury or another. It had been a difficult fight, but they'd won. His rage had powered him forward. Every time his energy waned, he thought of all the pain and misery Alexei had put Flynn through, how he'd tortured Estelle until her mind broke and she nearly had to be killed, of all the innocent civilians in Mantaic victimized on Alexei's orders… he'd made a lot of people cry, and the need to avenge all those who had suffered drove him forward. Yuri grinned and panted, "It's… over… Alexei."

A cool breeze hit his arm, which was wet with blood. He finally had a chance to look away from Alexei long enough to notice that they'd risen into the sky, with fluffy white clouds drifting by at eye-level. Right above him was a green crystal the size of a house, floating freely and gently spinning. He was no blastia expert, but he was pretty sure that was the core.

A few feet away, Sodia sat on her knees, clutching her arm. "Hey," Yuri called. "You alright?"

"I'll live," she responded in a terse voice, not looking at him.

"Sodia… about Flynn-"

"Don't talk to me about him," she snapped, shooting him a deadly glare.

Yuri sighed. He'd been expecting her to react this way. He looked over his shoulder and saw Flynn lying near the edge of the platform in a pool of blood.  _Please let him still be alive…_  He'd taken a huge gamble, but it was the only thing he could think of at the time.

Armour clinked. Yuri looked back to Alexei just in time to see the bloodied and wobbly commandant stagger to the middle of the shrine and hold up his sword.

"You're not dead yet?" Yuri growled, pushing against the ground to force his weary body to its feet. "You're worse than a cockroach."

Alexei raised his sword and white light flashed. He chuckled, his voice shaky and a tad manic. "You think you've won? The analysis… is complete."

"No…" Sodia breathed. "That's why he was distracted throughout our fight and we were able to win. He kept up the analysis this whole time!"

Yuri looked to her. "That was him distracted?! Aw, hell." He ran forward, determined to stop whatever it was Alexei was doing. Before he could reach him, the ball of light exploded, blasting Yuri backward. He hit the smooth marble ground and slid a few feet on his back, the breath knocked out of him.

It took a few seconds of frantic gasps for air to get his lungs working again, and then he pushed himself into an upright position. "Dammit!"

Alexei was on the ground again, staring up in awe. He laughed, his chuckles interspersed with wheezing and coughing. "Behold…" he gasped.

The crystal in the air glowed with internal light. Yuri and Sodia both squinted and looked away, and then blinding white light bathed the entire platform. Yuri covered his face with his arm as warm light washed over him. It shot upward like a laser beam, reaching up into the heavens. Yuri pulled his arm away the moment the light dimmed even slightly, to see the sky rip oven and reveal a black void beyond. From that void, something stirred. A writhing mass of dark matter swirled around inside the void and crept out, reaching its tendrils across the sky.

"No…" Yuri panted. "That's… the Adephagos!"

Sodia's eyes were wide with terror. "W-what in the world is an Adephagos?!"

Alexei's chuckling stopped. "What…" he choked. "No… that is the… power of Zaude? Impossible… I thought…"

"Look what you've done," Yuri growled at Alexei. He pushed against the ground and shakily got to his feet. "That's the ancient catastrophe… you used too much aer!"

"No," Alexei said, still flat on his back and staring up at the growing mass of aer in awe. "That… has always waited there. Now it has returned," his mouth twisted into a demented smile, "to spread the ruin it once rained down onto the ancients. And to think, I caused it all! The ultimate irony!" He started laughing again, a mad cackle the made his chest heave and was sometimes interrupted so he could cough up blood.

"Shut up already, you bastard!" Yuri shouted at him. That bastard had the gall to laugh at a time like this, like it was all some big joke, when a lot of people were going to get hurt because of this thing.

Sparks of light flew around the massive core in the air. The entire thing crackled with energy even as it began drifting down.

"Sodia!" Yuri shouted. "Get back!"

She looked up and followed his gaze, and then got to her feet as well as she could. Yuri sprinted from the core, trying to ignore how deeply unsettling Alexei's manic laughter had become. He pushed his exhausted body to outrun the shadow of the blastia that was quickly overtaking the platform as it fell from the sky.

They might as well have been struck by an earthquake from the way the entire platform shook when the blastia landed. The shockwave hit Yuri in the back and sent him flying forward in a cloud of debris.

Everything was suddenly very still, even though specks of dust still floated down around him. The platform was silent. Alexei's laughter had ceased, no doubt because that blastia had come down exactly where he'd been lying. Yuri lay on his chest, catching his breath, for almost a minute. After that fight with Alexei, he thought he deserved the break.

There was no time for a break with now, though. He needed to check on Flynn. With a groan, he slowly got to his feet. Flynn lay a few yards away, his face ghostly white and the knife still stuck in his stomach. His chest wasn't moving.

 _No_. Yuri dragged himself toward him. He had to still be alive, dammit! Yuri had enough to worry about with that Adephagos in the sky – please,  _please_  don't tell him he'd killed his best friend.

He heard clanking armour running toward him, and for a split second he wondered if Alexei had somehow managed to survive. Then he looked over and said, "Sodia?"

She sprinted toward him, her eyes wide with fury. She had a knife clasped in her hand, and he was too surprised to react in time. "You murderer!" she screamed at him, and then she sunk her knife into his stomach.

Yuri grunted in pain and surprise, and his eyes went wide. "W-What…?"

"You killed him!" She pushed him toward the edge of the platform, hatred in her eyes as she twisted the blade. "You called him your friend and then you killed him as soon as he was a burden on you. How  _could_  you?"

"Y-you don't… understand," he croaked.

She yanked her knife out with a twist, and Yuri's hands instantly went to his stomach to try to stem the flow of blood. Hell, was this what he'd done to Flynn? He suddenly felt pretty shitty about himself for putting his best friend though this. He tried to stay upright. Dammit, he needed to explain himself to Sodia. He had to get to Flynn and see if he was alright. He had to get down and explain what had happened to the others so they would work out what they were going to do about the Adephagos.

He didn't get to do any of those things, though, because his stumbling feet ran out of platform to stagger along. He wobbled on the lip, while Sodia stared at him with teary, hate-filled eyes and shoulders heaving with each deep breath. Then the breeze hit him again, and he toppled over the side.

* * *

When Flynn opened his eyes, breasts were in his face. He had to admit that in his long history of waking up, he'd had worse welcomings. As his vision focused, he realized that they were Lady Estellise's breasts, and that nothing about this situation was appropriate.

"Are you awake?" The breasts moved and were replaced with her worried face, which was preferable to her chest. He blinked at her, and then her face lit up into a huge grin. "You're alive!" She grabbed him and pressed his head against her chest in a crushing hug, his face pressed into her cleavage. Oh. They were back to inappropriate.

"Estelle, you might want to let him breathe," someone said.

"Oh! Right. I'm sorry, Flynn."

She released him and he rested his head against the stone ground. "That's, uh, quite alright, Lady Estellise." He had a lot of questions to ask, but before he could get to them, Repede barked and began licking his face.

"Ack!" He tried to push Repede away, but he was too exhausted to overpower the determined dog. He couldn't help but laugh as Repede's tongue tickled his face. "Repede – Repede, stop! I'm happy to see you, too!" None of the others seemed to feel it necessary to pull Repede off him, and stood back with varying expressions of amusement while Flynn drowned under dog slobber.

With a final contented "Woof!" Repede pulled back. Flynn rubbed his face to try to wipe away the saliva and dog fur. He took a grateful breath without worrying about getting drool in his mouth, and smiled. "Thank you, Repede."

Repede barked again, and then Flynn looked to the others. "What's going on? Where are we and when did you get here? Where's Alexei?" For the second time in the past week, he'd woken up from what he'd been sure was death, only to be riddled with confusion.

"We're still in Zaude," the person from before said. Flynn looked over and saw that it was one of Yuri's friends, the Krityan woman. He was pretty sure her name was Judith.

"Sir," Sodia's voice cut in, "We were on a platform in the air by the end of the battle with Alexei. Commandant Raven and the others managed to bring it back to the ground. Our brigade has taken control of the shrine and the remaining members of the Royal Guard are in our custody. Alexei is dead."

Flynn closed his eyes and smiled. Alexei was dead. For the first time in a week he felt like he could actually relax. "Good."

"Flynn?" Estelle said. "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine, Lady Estellise," he said without opening his eyes. "Just…  _incredibly_  tired. And, admittedly quite surprised that I'm not dead."

"You very nearly were," Judith said. "When Estelle got to you, you'd already nearly died of blood loss."

"Is Alexei the one who stabbed you?" Karol asked.

It was Sodia who answered. "No. Yuri Lowell is the one who stabbed him."

"Yuri?" Karol said. "But, why would Yuri stab his best friend?"

"Alexei was using Captain Flynn as a hostage against us," Sodia explained. "Yuri decided he'd rather kill the captain than find a more difficult resolution."

Flynn frowned and opened his eyes. "It's not like that." Sometimes Sodia's distrust of Yuri became quite annoying. "I asked Yuri to kill me because I cared more about stopping Alexei than my own life."

"Sir," Sodia said, "he just… he  _stabbed_  you!"

"If you ask me," Raven said, "the kid's pretty smart. If he wanted to give you a quick, easy death, slitting your throat would have been a lot kinder. The thing with stomach wounds, though, is that even though they hurt like a bitch, you can last pretty long if you keep the knife in the wound to staunch the blood flow."

Flynn rested his hand on his stomach. The wound was closed now, though his shirt was still soaked through with blood. The back of his hand was white as a sheet and he shivered a bit. He wondered why he was sweating and why he could still feel his heart beating too fast when Alexei was dead, until he remembered how close he'd come to bleeding to death. He was probably in shock.

"So… Yuri was trying to make sure Flynn would die slowly?" Karol asked.

"I understand," Judith said. "He needed to make Alexei think he'd killed Flynn, but at the same time keep Flynn alive long enough for Estelle to get to him with magic."

"That's pretty smart," Rita said. "So, is that where you've been this whole time? Getting held hostage by Alexei?"

"That's the simplest way to explain," Flynn said.

"But, Flynn," Estelle said, "what happened after you were hanged? I was so sure I saw you die."

"I'm sure this will seem impossible to you, but Alexei somehow brought me back from death by installing a blastia in my chest."

The rest of the group stared at him in surprise, but no one seemed to have any disbelief. Raven said, "You, too, huh?"

"Pardon?"

Raven reached to his shirt, undid the top button, and pulled it aside. On his chest, a shimmering blastia sat in a metal casing. When he saw Flynn staring, Raven smirked. "Sorry to steal your thunder. We should start a club."

"I see," Flynn said. He pushed against the ground and sat upright. His head spun with dizziness, so he put a hand to his forehead and tried to straighten the world. Just how much blood had he lost? His forehead felt cool and clammy, and he shivered a bit.

"Are you sure you're alright?" Estelle asked.

"I will be," Flynn said. "I'm pretty sure I'm in shock from blood loss." He was lucky to not be dead, so he couldn't complain that much.

"Here," Raven said, shrugging off his pink jacket and draping it around his shoulders. Flynn nodded in thanks and slipped his arms into the sleeves.

"So, you've been with Alexei this whole time?" Estelle asked.

"Yes," Flynn said. "I'm so sorry to worry you, Lady Estellise. I can't explain how much I wanted to leave and let you know I was alright, but I had no choice but to follow Alexei's orders."

Raven re-buttoned his shirt. "You don't have to tell me. I know a thing or two about how difficult it is to defy him when he's got your heart in his hand."

"Oh, Flynn," Estelle said, grabbing him again and pulling him into a tight hug. "You must have been so scared."

Flynn didn't even bother trying to pry Estelle off him, and reached an arm around her waist and patted her back. "I'm, uh, I'm alright." She didn't let go, so he looked over her shoulder and asked, "Where's Yuri?" He didn't like the way everyone suddenly averted their eyes and analyzed the floor. Estelle's arms around his shoulders stiffened.

Rita crossed her arms. "He fell," she said in a tight voice.

"What?" Flynn looked around, searching for a better explanation.

When his eyes landed on Sodia, her posture stiffened and she said, "Sir, after the battle with Alexei, the blastia core came crashing down on the platform. When the dust cleared, I couldn't find him anywhere on the platform. The force of the impact must have knocked him off."

"Impossible." After all he'd been through, he would not accept that Yuri could just die like that. Maybe Yuri did fall, but that didn't mean he was dead. Yuri was tenacious – he'd turn up. Flynn had been afraid Yuri was dead after Baction, and then he'd turned up. Then Flynn had worried he'd died after the Fiertia crashed, and he'd turned up. Flynn had been concerned that Yuri would be killed in an ambush earlier today, and then he'd turned up. So even if all logic said that there was no way anyone could survive a fall from that height, even though he was well aware that the surface tension of water would be like concrete from such a long fall, he refused to believe that Yuri was really gone. He'd turn up, Flynn was sure of it.

Estelle finally released him. "Oh, Flynn, what should we do now? That thing in the sky – that's the Adephagos, isn't it?"

"It has to be," Rita said, looking up. "Just great. We finally took care of Alexei, and now we have an even bigger problem."

"We need to find Master Ioder and discuss the knights' next course of action," Flynn said, following Rita's gaze. A writhing, translucent tentacle cut across the sky. "The appearance of this thing is no doubt causing mass panic."

"Oh, hey," Raven said, "now that you've shown up, can you be the commandant now?"

Flynn looked to him in surprise. "Excuse me?"

"Ioder made me commandant because he thought you were dead and there was no one else. He said himself he wanted ta appoint you ta take Alexei's place during this crisis. So, since you're here now, I think it's time you took my job."

Flynn nodded. "I see. Obviously I cannot assume that title until meeting with Master Ioder, but I can take command of the brigade here. From here, we should go to Zaphias and find Master Ioder to discuss what we're going to do about the Adephagos." He quickly stood up, which turned out to be a mistake. His head spun, the world shifted and he fell backward, only saved from falling to the ground by Sodia catching him.

"Be careful, Flynn!" Estelle said. "I closed your wound but you've still lost a lot of blood."

He wrapped one arm around Sodia's shoulders and she wrapped hers around his waist to keep him upright. "Yes, I see that," he said.

"You might not want to hear this," Judith said, "but I think instead of running off to Zaphias, you should take a day or two to rest."

"Judith is right, Flynn," Estelle said. "You're in no condition to run around fixing everyone's problems."

Ordinarily Flynn would argue, because there was a crisis to deal with and he didn't have time to lie around. However, the facts were that he'd spent the past few days in a lot of pain and a lot of stress, and only clinging to Sodia kept him upright at the moment. To take a few days, or even just one afternoon, and have a nice long nap, knowing he'd be surrounded by friends when he woke up, sounded like heaven. "I think you might be right."

"Ah, damn," Raven said. "Looks like I'm stuck with this job for a couple more days, huh?"

"What are we all going to do?" Karol asked, looking around the group.

"I'm going back to Aspio," Rita said. "The Adephagos is caused by aer, and that's something I know how to study. Maybe I can figure out a way to stop it, but it's going to take a lot of research."

"I'll go with you," Estelle said.

"You shouldn't, Estelle," Rita said. Estelle frowned, and Rita quickly added, "N-no, it's not that I don't want you around. But, you should go to Zaphias and meet with Ioder. The world is in crisis, right? The government probably needs their princess. Besides, you'd get bored hanging out in Aspio if I'm caught up in research."

Estelle nodded. "You're right, Rita. I wouldn't want to distract you. Karol, you should go to Dahngrest and see how the guilds are dealing with this."

"I'd go with ya," Raven said, "but I think I'm gonna have ta tag along with the knights a little while longer."

"I suppose I'll go with Estelle," Judith said. "I don't really know where else to go. And what about you, Repede?"

The dog barked and sat down next to Estelle.

"Oh, Repede!" Estelle said with a huge smile. "Do you really want to come with me?"

Repede growled, which Flynn took to mean that he was going to Zaphias because that was where Yuri was most likely to turn up, being his home and all. Flynn decided to let Estelle believe otherwise.

"What about you, sir?" Sodia asked. "I agree with the others; you should take a couple of days off and rest before jumping into your new role of commandant."

"I suppose I could go to Zaphias as well," he said. "That's where my bedroom is, after all."

"You should come with me," Rita said. Everyone looked to her in surprise. She saw their shock and shrugged. "What? I'm not saying I want to nurse you back to health or anything like that. Honestly, I just want to get a good look at that blastia in your chest. I'll take a look at it and make sure there's nothing wrong."

"That's a good idea," Sodia said. "You should get your heart looked at, sir, in case there's anything wrong with it."

"Alright," Flynn said. If it came with a bed and a chance to take a nice long nap, he didn't really care where he ended up.

"We should get moving, then," Judith said. "It's a long walk out of the shrine."

It was indeed a long walk, although it might have just felt longer to Flynn because all he wanted to do was lie down and sleep. He leaned on Sodia the entire way, but even though he was exhausted, sore, and worried about Yuri, he was happy. This was because every time they passed a group of his brigade, shouts and cheers rang through the corridor. His knights ran ahead to tell the others, so that exuberant soldiers waited for him around every turn. Seeing how many of his knights cared about him this much warmed his heart, even though he didn't actually have one.

By the time they exited the shrine, the one line that kept flying throughout the brigade was, "The captain's back!"

 _That's right,_  he thought with a smile.  _I'm back_.

Out front, the remaining Royal Guard sat on the ground, surrounded by Flynn's brigade. Flynn frowned when he saw them. Maybe they were the enemy, but he had to say that in his time spent with them, most of them hadn't actually been evil. There were certainly some – like Gayle – that he'd prefer to not spend time with, but they were just good knights who had the misfortune of having a terrible leader. He looked to Sodia and asked, "What's going to happen to them?"

"Up to you," Raven said. "You're the commandant now. Well, you will be, at least."

Oh. Right. It was still weird to think about being the commandant; it hadn't really sunk in yet.

"Captain!" One of the guards jumped to his feet and started running toward them.

Flynn's knights raised their spears to stop them, but Flynn saw who it was and said, "Wait! Let him through."

The knights gave Flynn a confused look, but lowered their spears. Tanber rushed across the walkway and ran up to Flynn. Sodia glared at him, but Flynn smiled.

"Good to see you alive, Lieutenant," Flynn said.

"Looks to me like I'm more alive than you are. What the hell happened?"

Flynn tried to shrug, but since he was leaning on Sodia he almost fell over. "Heh. Nothing to worry about; just some blood loss."

"What happened to the commandant?" Tanber asked.

"He's dead," Flynn said.

"Ah." Tanber hung his head. "Figured."

"I know you were loyal to Alexei," Flynn said, "but you should know that his actions have triggered a global catastrophe that threatens all life on this planet."

"W-what?" Tanber said, glancing up at the sky. "That thing? But… the commandant was going to save the empire."

"He failed," Flynn said. "Those who try to seize power with force inevitably always do."

"But… we all believed in him."

"I know," Flynn said. "Because you assisted him in his coup, I have no choice but to give all members of the Royal Guard some jail time as punishment. But, when you get out, there might be room for you in the Flynn Brigade, if you're willing."

Tanber grinned. "I understand, mate. Thanks."

"No, thank you. I don't know if I could have made it without your support."

"Yeah, alright. Well, see you around, mate. Hopefully the next time I run into you, you won't be half-dead. I ain't sure I'd recognize you if you weren't, though!" He laughed, and returned to sit with the rest of the guard.

Flynn and the others started walking again. Estelle asked, "Who was that, Flynn?"

"Just a friend," he said.

Rita frowned. "You actually made friends with those creeps?"

"They aren't creeps," Flynn said. "They're good knights. Just… misguided."

"If you say so," Rita said.

They reached the Fiertia and Sodia led him to the door below decks. She half-dragged him down the stairs, which were difficult to navigate with him leaning on her, and then he collapsed into the first bunk he passed. It was hard and narrow, but as far as he was concerned, it was the best bed in the universe.

Up above, Yuri's friends prepared to take off. Sodia, though, remained standing next to his bed. "You can go, Sodia," he said with his eyes closed. "I'm going to nap. You don't need to stand guard over me."

"Sir… I need to apologize."

He opened his eyes and turned to look at her. "What for?"

She sighed heavily. "Because I failed you. Last week, you made me promise that if you ever started causing people to suffer, I would stop you. Maybe it wasn't by your choice, but that happened today. Alexei was using you to hurt people, and even though you begged me to end it, I just… I couldn't."

"It's alright, Sodia," Flynn said. "It wasn't fair of me to ask you to do that. Anyone would struggle to kill a friend, even if it was for the good of the world."

"Yuri Lowell did it." She couldn't meet his eyes as she said that.

"Yuri is… special. Besides, he wasn't planning on killing me at all."

"He still took a very risky gamble with your life."

"But it was a gamble I was alright with."

"That's true… he was trying to save you." Her voice went taut. "He thought of a way to save you that hadn't even occurred to me. I thought… I earnestly believed that he'd killed you to make his own job easier, but he actually found a clever plan to save you and I bought it was much as Alexei did."

"Sodia, it's alright. I'm not upset with you for not thinking of that."

"No, it's just… I think… I think I misjudged him. I – I think I made a mistake."

Flynn frowned. "What do you mean?"

She stared at the far wall for a long moment, and then let out a deep breath. "It's… nothing, sir. It hardly matters now; Yuri Lowell is dead."

"He's not," Flynn said stubbornly.

Sodia looked to him with a pitying frown. "Sir… the possibility of surviving that fall…"

"I know the odds, but I also know Yuri. It doesn't matter how high the odds are stacked against him, he'll find a way to come out on top. He always does. I believe in him."

Sodia tried to smile, though it didn't reach her eyes. "If you say so, sir. I'll leave you to rest." She grabbed the thin blanket on the bed and pulled it up around Flynn. "Sleep well, sir."

"Thanks, Sodia," he said with a smile as he closed his eyes. For the first time in what felt like ages, he let himself fall asleep without being afraid of what would greet him when he woke up.

* * *

"Would you stop flinching?" Rita snapped.

"Sorry," Flynn said. "Your hands are cold." He'd felt a bit awkward with a young woman poring over his bare chest at first, but quickly realized that Rita was so engrossed in his blastia that he could have a duck tattoo on his chest and she wouldn't even notice. He sat in a chair in her tiny house and let her fiddle with his blastia. It had been a week since Zaude, and Flynn was getting restless. He was still mildly anemic from losing so much blood, but he'd gotten his strength back and no longer felt like he'd been dragged behind a cart for a few miles.

In the first few days, he'd tried to join Rita when she went with Sodia and the knights to search around Zaude for Yuri. After stumbling around half-dead and nearly fainting, Sodia dragged him to his bunk on the ship and made him stay there. So far, the search for Yuri had been unsuccessful. No one dared say it when Flynn was in the room, but by the end it had turned into a search for his body, so that they would at least have something to bury. Flynn hadn't given up hope yet. The fact that they hadn't found a body just meant that Yuri was still alive somewhere.

Eventually, they gave up looking. Everyone had other things that needed to be done, so even though Flynn protested that they just weren't looking hard enough and that Yuri was sure to show up, they left Zaude in disappointment and returned to Aspio. Staying with Rita turned out to be a fascinating experience. She sat on a stack of books because her other chair was across the room, and she'd let him sleep in her bed because she kept working late into the night until she crashed at her desk. She hadn't even looked at his heart for the first couple days, because he was too busy sleeping all day and she was too busy running around Aspio and shouting about scientific breakthroughs. When he'd asked her where he might find some food, she'd handed him an entire loaf of bread that was a bit stale, a block of cheese, and an egg without a word before running off to the library. His stay with Rita had been, in a word,  _interesting_.

"I'm almost done," Rita said.

"I still have no idea what you're doing." After his experience with Alexei, he was a bit paranoid about having someone poke around with the control panel of his heart. The fact that she'd pressed a wrong button once and sent him into another heart attack for a couple of seconds didn't help much. She'd apologized, but he was still a bit wary.

"I'm just trying to see how it works," Rita said. "I'm pretty sure I understand the formula and I'm making some adjustments to make it more stable."

"What do you mean?"

"Right now it's set up so that it can be manipulated by external influence. That's dangerous, because even if Alexei's control got crushed with him, it's possible someone else could come along with a new one and use it to manipulate you."

Flynn nodded, shivering a bit. He chalked it up to being shirtless in Rita's unheated hut in the chilly caverns of Aspio, but he had to admit that there had been a trickle of pure terror at the thought of reliving his experiences with someone else. He didn't think he could handle that, physically or emotionally.

"It'll also just be more stable in general," Rita said. "You shouldn't have to worry about it." She clicked a few more buttons, and then said, "Pick a password."

"A password?"

"Yeah, a password. I'm setting it so that nobody can adjust the settings without inputting the password first. Pick something, but tell me what it is so I at least can get in and do maintenance just in case."

"Alright." What did people usually use for passwords? The name of their hometown? But everyone knew he was from Zaphias. A pet name, perhaps, but he feared Repede might be too well-known, too. It shouldn't be something someone could discover just by researching his life; it should be something only he would know. He got an idea, and then punched in a string a numbers. "I that good?"

"Yeah," Rita said. "Let me write that down in my notes. You're not going to forget that, are you? It's just a string of numbers."

Flynn shook his head. "It's a date. That's the day that I met Yuri when we were children."

"Oh," Rita said. "How sweet." She closed the control screen and tossed him a shirt. "Alright, I'm done. You shouldn't have any trouble with it, but you can come see me if you do."

"Thank you so much for doing this," Flynn said.

"It's no problem."

He pulled his shirt over his head, and heard the front door open. Rita said, "Hey, you can't just come barging in – oh!"

"Hi."

Flynn froze with the shirt still halfway over his head. Was that…? He'd know that voice anywhere, but he was so desperate to hear it that he might be imagining things. Barely daring to believe it, he pulled the shirt the rest of the way over his head and turned to the door. His voice caught in his throat. It really was him.

"Where the hell were you?!" Rita demanded, her hands on her hips. "I looked all over for you, you know."

"Ah, sorry about that," Yuri said.

Flynn got to his feet and crossed the room as quickly as he could. "Yuri… you're alright!"

Yuri smiled. "Hey, Flynn. Sorry for worrying you."

Flynn began to understand just how Yuri had felt when they met in the hallway at Zaude last week. He been telling himself Yuri had to be alive for a week, but suddenly having confirmation provided how uncertain his belief really had been. Flynn grinned, and then punched Yuri in the face.

"Ah! Hey!" Yuri said, putting a hand over his cheek.

Estelle gasped. "Flynn, what are you doing?"

"That's for making me think you were dead."

Yuri lowered his hand and laughed. "I guess I deserved that one."

Flynn grabbed him and pulled him into a tight hug. "Don't ever worry me like that again," he mumbled into Yuri's neck.

"Ugh, Flynn, get off me," Yuri said, wriggling out of the hug. "Come on, this isn't how guys are supposed to hug."

Flynn pulled back, but he left his hands on Yuri's shoulders. It was comforting to feel him solid and real and  _alive_. "What happened? How did you survive?" Flynn asked.

Yuri frowned. "To be honest, I don't really know. Duke saved me somehow, and I woke up in my room in the Lower Quarter. But, thanks to Estelle I'm all better now, so you don't need to worry about me. How are you?"

"Also much better, thanks," Flynn said, lowering his arms. "I think it's about time I got off my ass and relieved Raven of his duties. Where is he now?"

"I believe he went to Hypionia with Sodia and your brigade," Judith said. "We were planning on stopping in Dahngrest to check in on the guild situation and pick up Karol and then head down there to meet him. You're welcome to join us."

Flynn nodded. "Yes, I think I will."

"Oh, Flynn," Estelle said, reaching into her backpack, "Ioder gave me this to give you." She handed him a parcel wrapped in brown paper.

Flynn set it on the table and untied it, and he couldn't keep a smile off his face when he pulled the paper away and was met with blue and white fabric.

"What is it?" Yuri asked.

Flynn pulled the shirt up and grinned at him. "It's my uniform. My  _proper_  uniform."

Five minutes later, Flynn returned to the main room with his uniform on. He still had the armour from the Royal Guard uniform, although he'd tossed the red clothing. Even if it wasn't full of awful memories, it was covered in blood. He stood before the others and straightened his belt, feeling like himself again for the first time in weeks.

"It's perfect, Flynn," Estelle said, clasping her hands together. "It's so good to see you well again."

Yuri rolled his eyes. "Yes, you're very pretty. Now can we get going?"

"Oh, Estelle," Rita said. "I figured out something important I need to talk to you about. I'll fill you in once we get underway."

"Oh, ok, Rita."

Yuri was already heading for the door, so Flynn followed him. Behind them, Rita, Estelle, and Judith talked about aer as they walked through Aspio.

Yuri glanced over at him. "So, you're really one hundred percent alright now, then?"

"I'd say… ninety-five, give or take a few percentage points. I won't lie; Alexei messed me up pretty badly. But, Rita made some adjustments to my heart and she assures me it will function exactly like a normal heart now."

"That's good to hear. Man, the more you talk about Alexei, the more I want to bring him back from the dead so I can give him another beating."

"Heh. I kind of wish you could, too, because I feel cheated. You and Sodia kicked his ass for me, but I would have liked to give him some payback myself."

"Yeah." Yuri scowled. "Instead, we're left cleaning up his mess."

"At least I have experience with that. I spent our entire childhood cleaning up after  _your_  messes, after all."

Yuri elbowed him in the ribs. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"I don't know why I ever put up with you," Flynn said with a smile.

"Me neither," Yuri said. "But I guess, in the end… I'm glad you're not dead."

"Yeah. I'm glad you're not dead, either."

Yuri looked over at him with a confident smile as they left Aspio, his face lit up with sudden sunlight. "So, what do you say we go kill this giant space octopus thing?"

"Alright." After spending so much time in Aspio, the warm sun on his face was a pleasant change. He couldn't help but smile, and even the threat of the Adephagos couldn't drag his mood down. Maybe it was because he'd had a miserable past couple of weeks, but with his uniform in place, Yuri at his side, and the sun in the sky, he thought there couldn't possibly be a more wonderful day.


End file.
